On Monday, a senior employee from the Women and Child Development department was detained on suspicion of raping his friend’s 14-year-old daughter over the course of several months and getting her pregnant. The girl is now 17 years old. Also detained was the official’s wife, who is suspected of giving the survivor abortion pills.
On the directive of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the representative of the Delhi government has also been suspended.
The survivor is a student of Class 12 in Delhi and was living with the accused, Premoday Khakha, and his family after her father’s death on October 1, 2020.
Premoday Khakha is a deputy director in the WCD department. He was her local guardian and the girl used to call him ‘mama’ (maternal uncle).
When the victim was 14 years old, the accused is accused of repeatedly raping her between November 2020 and January 2021.
Along with charging the accused and his wife with rape in violation of the POCSO Act, Delhi Police has also filed a FIR against them. The wife is accused of giving the woman medication to end the pregnancy.
According to a statement by DCP (north) Sagar Singh, an FIR has been registered under the Pocso Act on the survivor’s complaint.
“The survivor said that she started living with a family friend, her guardian, after her father’s death from October 2020 to February 2021. She was sexually harassed, physically molested and repeatedly raped by the uncle under whose care and guardianship she was staying at his house. The survivor started having anxiety bouts and was admitted to a hospital a week back,” the police official said.
