A woman panchayat pradhan from a district in Bengal was allegedly raped in a hotel on Park Street by a man who promised to help her husband, who is in jail in connection with a case being probed by the National Investigation Agency.

The woman has alleged that the man raped her last year, and later sexually harassed her multiple times and threatened to circulate nude pictures of her taken without her knowledge or consent, police said. She lodged a complaint with Park Street police station last month.

The accused, who had claimed to be an Indian Army jawan, was arrested from a guest house in the Kidderpore area on Wednesday night. He was identified as Manibur Rahman from Birbhum. He was produced at Bankshall court on Thursday and remanded in police custody till August 4.

Rahman has been charged under sections of rape and criminal intimidation, the police said. The charges could lead to a maximum of 10 years in jail.

According to the woman’s complaint, Rahman had told her she would have to visit Calcutta last year if she wanted to help her jailed husband. “She has alleged that the accused took her to a hotel on Park Street, gave her a spiked drink and then raped her,” said an officer of Kolkata Police.

She has alleged he photographed her when she was unconscious. “After this, the accused man sexually harassed her multiple times after forcing her to meet him by threatening to circulate the pictures,” said the officer.

The police mounted electronic surveillance to track Rahman and traced him to the Kidderpore guest house — in the jurisdiction of Watgunge police station — on Wednesday night.

Rahman has claimed he is a havildar in the Indian Army, the police said. He has also claimed to have married the woman who has alleged rape against him. “He claimed innocence and said that he was posted at an army unit in Assam. He also said he had been married once before and that this was his second marriage,” said an officer who has interrogated him.

Investigators are in the process of seizing the electronic devices used to take the woman’s photographs and videos without her consent.

Law college case

The Park Street rape complaint came within days of a 24-year-old student of South Calcutta Law College alleging gape-rape on the campus in Kasba. In this case, too, the woman was allegedly blackmailed with videos captured of her being raped.

Police have arrested former Trinamool student leader Monojit Mishra, 31, students Pramit Mukherjee, 20, and Zaib Ahmed, 19, and security guard Pinaki Banerjee, 55.

Mishra, Mukherjee and Ahmed were arrested on June 26-27 after the woman filed a complaint alleging she was raped, assaulted and filmed. Her complaint said she was first assaulted in the students’ union room on June 25 evening. When she tried to escape, she was forcibly taken to the security guard’s room, where Mishra raped her while the other two stood by and watched.