Delhi Women and Child Department officer and his wife after being arrested by police on the charge of raping a girl under the POCSO Act, at a police station in New Delhi, Monday, Aug 21, 2023. Delhi Government has suspended the accused after the allegations.
Credit: PTI Photo
Delhi government official Premoday Khakha was on Tuesday produced before a local court, where he was sent to one-day judicial custody, a day after while his wife Seema Rani was sent to judicial custody.
Khakha, who has been accused of raping a minor repeatedly over a period of months and impregnating her, was suspended from his job by the Delhi government. His wife, Seema Rani, has been accused of administering medicines to the minor to terminate her pregnancy.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi said that the minor girl has alleged that Khakha raped her multiple times between November 2020 and January 2021.
“Around February, she alleged that she got pregnant and informed Khakha’s wife Rani about it. The woman allegedy slapped her, threatened her and gave her abortion pills to silence her. Around April 2021, she returned to her mother’s house after telling her that she did not like to stay with Khakha’s family. However, she did not tell her mother about the sexual assault and the abortion,” Kalsi said about the girl’s statement.
Both the accused were produced separately before metropolitan magistrate Katyayini Sharma Kandwal. The couple were arrested on Monday after the victim recorded her statement before a magistrate at a hospital.
The minor was the daughter of Khakha’s friend, who had passed away on October 1, 2020, following which the girl started staying at his house.
A case has since been registered under provisions of the POCSO Act and Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 376(2)(f) (being a relative, guardian or teacher of, or a person in a position of trust or authority towards the woman, commits rape on such woman) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to outrage the modesty of a woman), police said.
IPC Sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 313 (causing miscarriage without woman's consent) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) have also been invoked in the case, police said.