'Shiney, a nice man'

The media frenzy visible outside the Oshiwara police station and Andheri court -- both in northwest Mumbai -- was absent at Tarapore Towers when this reporter visited it on Monday morning.

Tarapore Towers, a housing society in northwest Mumbai, is where actor Shiney Ahuja lives, where he is alleged to have raped a maid who worked in his home on Sunday afternoon.

Ahuja enjoys a good reputation among the complex's security staff. One security guard, who said he has known Ahuja for a year-and-a-half, acknowledged the actor was a "nice man."

The actor did not have a history of poor behaviour, the guard added. "He parties, but then everyone parties and drinks these days. But he has never come in a drunken state or created problems. I don't think he has committed any crime."

Another guard revealed that the maid came to work at 9 am and left at 6 pm. She would enter her name in the housing complex's security register, he added. On Sunday, the maid left at 5 pm.

Tarapore Towers and the adjoining Tarapore Gardens -- both named after Colonel A B Tarapore, the highest ranking Indian Army officer to win the Param Vir Chakra; he died fighting the Pakistan army in the 1965 war -- was established to house military personnel. Ahuja's seventh floor apartment belongs to his father, a former army officer.