NEW DELHI: The senior Women and Child Development officer, who was booked by the Delhi Police nine days ago in a case of sexual assault of a minor girl, was arrested on Monday along with his wife. The officer has been suspended by the Delhi government.
The accused, identified as Pramoday Khakha (51), who was serving as a deputy director in the WCD department, had allegedly raped the girl several times between November 2020 and January 2021. His 50-year-old wife, identified as Seema Rani, has also been charged with giving the girl medication to terminate pregnancy.
"We have arrested both husband and wife. The interrogation is underway. It is a sensitive matter and we are investigating it with utmost sincerity. Recording of statement of the victim under CrPC 164 with the magistrate is underway," Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.
The matter came to light when the 16-year-old girl, who is now in Class 12, recently narrated her ordeal to a counsellor at St Stephen's Hospital where she was admitted following an anxiety attack. The counsellor then informed the police.
According to the police, the minor girl started living with a family friend, her guardian-turned-accused, in Burari after the death of her father two years ago.
After extensive psychological counselling, she opened up to the doctors, counsellors and police officers. “She was sexually harassed, physically molestated and repeatedly raped by the officer under whose care and guardianship she was staying at his house,” the DCP said. When the minor allegedly became pregnant, she informed the wife of the accused who later asked her son to get medicines for pregnancy termination and gave them to the girl.
The police then, based on her complaint, had registered a case under relevant sections of IPC and the POCSO Act on August 13. The officer was arrested after nine days of investigation. The girl is still admitted to a hospital where she is recovering from the trauma.
Meanwhile, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal went to meet the 16-year-old rape survivor, but was not allowed to do so by the police.
"The (accused) Delhi government official has exerted clout. That's why he was not arrested for 10 days by Delhi Police. We have come here to meet the victim but we are not allowed by police to do so," Maliwal said as she sat outside the hospital in protest.
The commission, in a statement, said the director of the hospital came to meet Maliwal and informed her that the DCP and ACP of Delhi Police are inside the hospital and had asked the hospital not to allow her to meet the survivor.
“It is very unfortunate that an officer working in the Women and Child Development department had been raping a minor. It is shocking that even after registration of an FIR eight days ago, the accused was not arrested by Delhi Police," Maliwal said.