Satara: Two more women have accused Marathi writer Laxman Mane of raping them, police said yesterday. Earlier, three women had alleged that he had sexually assaulted them.
Mane is absconding since he was booked on Tuesday following allegations by three women working in a school run by him in Jakatwadi village in Satara district, around 250km from Mumbai.
“Of the two new complainants who came forward late on Wednesday, one is a cook and the other was a peon in the school. Mane is absconding and police teams are investigating the matter,” an officer from Taluka Police Station said.
Mane, 63, a former Maharashtra legislative council member, has now been charged with raping five women working at his residential school for tribal children in Satara.
Mane was honoured with a Padma Shri award by the central government four years ago.
According to police, three married women aged between 30 and 35 on Monday alleged that the writer had raped them after saying he would make them permanent employees at the school.
They claimed he had raped them between 2003 and 2010 in the school, at his home in Satara and at a guest house in Pune.
After booking Mane for rape, police teams visited his home and other places.
Mane’s family denies the allegations, saying he is being framed.
Mane won the Sahitya Akademi award for his autobiography Upara in 1981.
IANS
