Minor's rape: SC denies default bail to suspended Delhi govt official's wife

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New Delhi, May 2 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant default bail to the wife of suspended Delhi government official Premoday Khakha in a case of alleged sexual assault of a minor girl.

Khakha, who served as Deputy Director in the Women and Child Development Department, is accused of raping a 16-year-old girl multiple times between 2020 and 2021, and his wife, Seema Rani, reportedly gave the minor survivor medicine to terminate her pregnancy.

A bench of Justices C.T. Ravi Kumar and S.V.N. Bhatti refused to interfere with the February 26 decision of the Delhi High Court rejecting the bail pleas filed by the Khakha couple. Earlier, the trial court had denied the plea for statutory bail, rejecting the contention that the charge sheet filed was based on an incomplete investigation. Both Khakha and his wife remain under judicial custody.

However, in January this year, the top court granted anticipatory bail to Khakha's daughter and son, noting that the duo have joined the investigation.

A police source had said that Khakha 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," the police source had said.

"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 had said.

A case was registered under the relevant Sections of the Pocso Act and the Indian Penal Code against the accused.

--IANS

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