A Pune photographer was reportedly raped and assaulted by a man she met through a chess app, who had initially claimed to be from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. According to police reports on Wednesday, the woman, in her mid-twenties, filed a complaint alleging that the man, with whom she started chatting on the app in November 2022, had deceived her by promising marriage.

Their interactions progressed over chats within the app’s messaging section, where the man shared photos of alleged injuries and medications after claiming to have met with an accident. Over the subsequent weeks, he assured her of marriage and disclosed his supposed real identity and location in Ahmedabad.

Later on, he purportedly feigned a stroke, expressing an urgent desire to meet her. They rendezvoused at a Pune shopping mall around May 2023, after which he allegedly took her to his rented place and assaulted her.

Following this incident, when the woman confronted him about his commitment, he reportedly became elusive and forced her to consume boiling water, leading to her hospitalization. In October 2023, he promised to bring his mother and documents from his hometown in Gujarat but vanished thereafter. He blocked her on all online platforms and disappeared from his rented accommodation, evading any trace.