depression
The accused had repeatedly raped a Mumbai man  after promising to marry him - Representational image iStock

Police in the Indian financial capital city of Mumbai have arrested a man for allegedly raping and torturing his 25-year-old boyfriend.

Shazan Sheikh was produced in a metropolitan court on Wednesday (27 September) and has been remanded in police custody for three days. Police said the accused had allegedly raped and mentally harassed a Mumbai man – who works as an executive in a multinational company – for days after promising to marry him.

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The duo had met several months ago on a dating website and became friends, according to local newspaper Mid-day.

Sheikh, who hails from Uttar Pradesh state and was working with a private firm in the south Indian city of Bengaluru, had reportedly visited the survivor in Mumbai on 24 August and forced himself on him.

"He promised to marry me. In August, he stayed at my house, where he forcibly had sex with me. I suffered from a lot of bleeding from my genitalia because of it. In this condition, he forcibly had sex with me for four days," the survivor said in his police complaint.

The young man added that the accused had also hurt him mentally, physically and financially. "He married me in my house but forbade me from telling anyone about it. He promised a fresh start to our relationship and one day, he left for Bangalore [Bengaluru], saying he would be back in a few days.

"When I called him after a few days, he refused to recognize me and blocked my number. He blocked other numbers too. Now that the police have arrested the accused, I want him to be hanged," he added.

A police official who is investigating the case said that after receiving a complaint from the survivor, they registered a first information report (FIR) under section 377 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and arrested the accused from Bengaluru. He was then produced before the court on Wednesday.

Homosexual relationship in India is illegal under section 377 of IPC, which criminalises sexual activities "against the order of nature".

The section, which was introduced during the British rule of India, was decriminalised by High Court of Delhi in 2009. The Supreme Court overturned the ruling in 2011, saying revising or abolishing Section 377 should be a matter left to Parliament and not the judiciary.