Delhi Minor’s rape case: Court sends suspended govt official, wife to 14-day judicial custody

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday extended judicial custody of suspended Delhi government official Premoday Khakha, who is accused of allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl multiple times, and his wife, who reportedly gave her medicine to terminate her pregnancy, by 14 days.

On expiry of their one-day judicial custody, the accused were produced before Additional Sessions Judge (POCSO) Richa Parihar of Tis Hazari Courts.

Both Khakha and his wife Seema Rani were produced separately before Duty Metropolitan Magistrate Katyayini Sharma Kandwal, who sent them to one-day juducial custody on Tuesday.

On Monday, the Delhi Police had arrested 51-year-old Khakha, who has been suspended as deputy director in the Women and Child Development department of Delhi government, and his wife after questioning them for several hours at their residence. The move came after the victim recorded her statement before a magistrate at a city hospital.

The couple is a resident of Shakti Enclave in the Burari area. The accused allegedly raped the victim repeatedly between 2020 and 2021. A police source said the accused kept on raping the minor daughter of his friend for months, during which his wife also allegedly assisted him.

“As his wife also aided him in the act and did not report the matter to the police, we have added Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) in the FIR against his wife,” said the police source.

“The most shocking part is that when the victim got pregnant, she was threatened with dire consequences by the accused. When the accused narrated the matter to his wife, instead of helping the victim, the woman sent her son to buy abortion pills, which she gave to the victim,” the source said.

A case has been registered under the relevant sections of the POCSO Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the accused, the police said.

The victim, who is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital, had met the accused at a church. Later, after befriending the girl, the accused took her to his house on the pretext of helping her. In 2020, the father of the victim passed away, after which she went into depression.