Minor’s sexual assault case: SC refuses bail to wife of suspended Delhi govt officer

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant bail to the wife of suspended Delhi government officer Premoday Khakha, who allegedly raped a minor girl several times and impregnated her.

A bench of justices C T Ravikumar and S V N Bhatti dismissed the plea of the official’s wife Seema Rani and said it was not inclined to interfere with the Delhi High Court order which had dismissed her plea. Khakha has been accused of allegedly raping a minor girl several times between November 2020 and January 2021 and is currently in judicial custody after being arrested in August. The minor was the daughter of a person known to the accused, according to police. Rani is also an accused in the case. She allegedly gave the girl medicines to terminate her pregnancy. The woman is in judicial custody. The couple was arrested after the survivor recorded her statement before a magistrate at a hospital.

The case was registered under the provisions of the POCSO Act and Indian Penal Code sections 376(2)(f) (being a relative, guardian or teacher of, or a person in a position of trust or authority towards the woman, commits rape on such woman) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to outrage the modesty of a woman). IPC sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 313 (causing miscarriage without woman’s consent) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) have also been invoked in

the case, police said.