NEW DELHI: The investigation into the rape case of a minor girl by a now-suspended senior Delhi government officer has revealed that the accused had first allegedly drugged the survivor before raping her, sources said on Tuesday.
The accused, identified by cops as Premoday Khakha (51) who was a deputy director in the Women and Child Development, had allegedly raped the girl several times between November 2020 and January 2021. His 50-year-old wife, identified by cops as Seema Rani, has been charged with giving the girl medicines to terminate a pregnancy.
“Premoday Khakha had first raped the girl on October 31, 2020, after drugging her,” sources said, adding that the victim was 14 years old at that time.
Meanwhile, the official was sent to one-day judicial custody by a local court on Tuesday.
According to police, the minor had started living with her guardian-turned-accused Khakha, in Burari, after the death of her father on October 1, 2020.
The girl, now in Class XII, recently narrated the incident to a counsellor at a hospital where she was admitted following an anxiety attack.
The police, based on her complaint, had registered a case under relevant sections of IPC and the POCSO Act on August 13, however, arrested the officer after nine days.
The accused had tried to flee along with his wife before getting arrested, according to CCTV footage doing the rounds on social media.
Sources in the police department said the couple, residents of Shakti Enclave in Burari, were going to meet a lawyer and planning to seek anticipatory bail from a court before they were arrested on Monday.
Meanwhile, the lawyer representing the accused refuted the allegations levelled by the victim, saying that she could not have gotten impregnated as Khakha had undergone a vasectomy 20 years ago.