Rajnandgaon/Nagpur: A court in Rajnandgaon on Friday acquitted the then chief fire officer Rajendra Uchake of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) in a case involving allegations of sending obscene WhatsApp messages to a woman and criminal intimidation.Delivering the verdict, the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) held that the prosecution failed to establish the charges beyond reasonable doubt. The court noted that the complainant, who was the principal witness in the case, did not appear before the court to testify despite repeated summons, warrants and other coercive measures. As a result, the allegations contained in her complaint remained unsubstantiated.The court further observed that forensic evidence did not conclusively prove that the alleged objectionable messages were sent by Uchake to the complainant. While electronic devices were examined, investigators could not establish any electronic trail linking the transmission of the alleged content to Uchake. The case stemmed from a dispute that came to light in 2022. As per police records, the complainant and her husband Amit Soni were arrested by the Nagpur Crime Branch in July 2022 for allegedly honey-trapping Uchake and attempting to extort Rs1.5 crore from him. The couple was arrested from a hotel in Sadar while allegedly accepting Rs28 lakh.Investigators had then claimed that Uchake was being threatened with circulation of private chats, photographs and videos unless he paid the demanded money. After securing bail, the woman lodged a complaint with Rajnandgaon police, alleging that Uchake had sent her obscene WhatsApp messages and threatened her. Rajnandgaon police registered an offence and arrested Uchake on April 13, 2023.
