The accused, Premoday Khakha, was posted to the Women and Child Development Department.
The teen girl raped multiple times by suspended senior Delhi government official Premoday Khakha was drugged before each act of sexual abuse and, on one instance, woke up to injuries on her body, police sources said Tuesday as more details emerge of this shocking crime. Police sources also said the young girl - then 14 years old - was depressed after her father died in 2020. The father died at the height of the pandemic but not due to Covid, the sources added.
According to the police, the first rape occurred on October 31, 2020. This was likely just days after the young girl - traumatised by her father's death - was packed off to Khakha's home in Burari in northeast Delhi by her mother - less than two weeks later. The mother said the official had convinced her she would be safe in his care.
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Police sources have said the teen was raped at least once more during her five-month stay in Burari - in February 2021. A month later she went to Jharkhand for a family function and did not return to Khakha's home.
In her statement to the police, the girl said Khakha used to molest her in church as well as his home.
Panic attacks after father's death
The police say the teen girl - now a Class XII student - suffered frequent panic attacks after her father died, forcing her to drop out of school after Class IX and enroll in an open learning institution. It is likely, police sources say, the twin trauma - the father's death and the rapes - left her unable to alert authorities to the sexual abuse inflicted by Premoday Khakha.
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The attacks on the young girl were only revealed this month after she spoke to a counsellor at a Delhi hospital, where she was being treatment for another round of panic attacks. She had been rushed to the hospital by her mother.
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The girl has been and continues to be provided therapy to help her recover from the repeated sexual assault she faced from her father's 'friend' - someone she called 'mama' (uncle).
Accused not co-operating?
Khakha - who has been suspended from his position in the Delhi government's Women and Child Development Department and arrested - is not co-operating, police sources also said, adding he insists the allegations are 'completely wrong'.
The accused was produced in a Delhi court Tuesday evening and sent to judicial custody for one day.
In addition to Khakha, Delhi Police also arrested Seema Khakha, the accused's wife, who allegedly had the couple's 21-year-old son buy abortion pills to feed the teen after she became pregnant. The young girl reached out to the wife for help.
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Khakha's suspension and arrest were announced after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party ripped into Delhi Police - which reports to the Bharatiya Janata Party-controlled centre - over the delay in arresting him.
Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal has labelled Khakha a 'predator'. "... if the one whose job was to protect the daughters turns into a predator, then where will the girls go! Must be arrested soon!" she posted on X (formerly Twitter).