New Delhi: After absconding for 24 hours, an officer of the Hyderabad Police, booked for allegedly raping, kidnapping and threatening a woman, surrendered to the authorities and was taken into custody on Sunday, July 10.K. Nageshwar Rao, the officer in question, is the circle inspector of the Marredpally police station in Hyderabad and was booked on the basis of a complaint filed by the wife of a man who worked in his farmhouse.According to the News Minute, Rao was booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 452 (House-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint); 376(2) (rape, committed by a police officer); 307 (attempt to murder); and 365 (kidnapping) as well as Section 30 of the Arms Act.While Rao was still absconding, leaders of the Mahila Congress and Youth Congress in the state, on Sunday night, staged a dharna outside the office of the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in LB Nagar, alleging that the police was trying to shelter Rao in the case, according to a report by the Hindu.After surrendering to the Rachakonda Police, Rao was taken into custody by a Special Operations Team (SOT) of the Vanasthalipuram Police and is reportedly being questioned by the Vanasthalipuram Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP). Rao has also been suspended.Survivor’s complaintThe woman, in her complaint, alleged that on the night of July 7, Rao entered the couple’s home without their permission, assaulted the woman and then raped her. When her husband returned, he reportedly beat Rao with a stick, prompting the latter to threaten them with his revolver. According to the complaint, Rao then hit the woman’s husband in the head with the butt of the gun.Thereafter, the woman alleged that Rao told the couple to leave Hyderabad and forced them into a car with him. While the woman’s husband was driving the car, it met with an accident near Ibrahimpatnam early on July 8, during which the couple managed to escape and subsequently approached the Vanasthalipuram Police with their complaint, which was filed the same day.In an earlier press release, the police had noted that Rao arrested the woman’s husband in 2018 in a case of credit card scam and had subsequently hired him to work on his farm, which he did until February, 2021.Also read: Scenes from Hyderabad: The City as a Defiant Space Against Hindutva PoliticsThe woman’s complaint further alleges earlier wrongdoing by Rao. It claims that she had been brought to Rao’s land on an earlier occasion without her consent or that of her husband. The complaint further notes that her husband later called Rao about the same and threatened to inform his wife about it, following which Rao reportedly apologised.However, two other police officers later took the woman’s husband away, the complaint says, threatening to file false cases against him if the couple was to inform Rao’s family about his behaviour.Following Rao’s arrest and suspension, former Rajya Sabha MP T.G. Venkatesh, who had been charged by Rao in a land-encroachment case on April 17 this year, has alleged that this case was false and that Rao had concocted charges against him after taking money from some undisclosed individuals, the New Indian Express reported.“The Inspector made baseless allegations against me pertaining to the property case and included my name in the FIR. Even after the complainant gave a written letter that I am not connected, Nageshwar Rao went ahead. He expected big money and made several allegations against me,” the Express quoted Venkatesh as saying.