A city court on Tuesday sent to one day judicial custody suspended Women and Child Development (WCD) department officer Premoday Khakha who allegedly raped a minor girl several times and impregnated her. His wife Seema Rani, who is accused of giving the girl medicine to terminate her pregnancy, was also sent to judicial custody for a day. Both were produced separately before the duty metropolitan magistrate, Katyayini Sharma Kandwal.
In a related development, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Tuesday requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to direct the Delhi Police to allow her to meet the girl. In a letter to Shah, she also urged him to order an inquiry into the delay in arresting the accused and to shift the 16-year-old girl to AIIMS for better treatment. “In case the survivor and her family do not want to be shifted to AIIMS, a team of doctors from AIIMS should be sent to examine her and oversee her treatment,” the DCW chief wrote. A police officer said the girl’s mother did not want to meet anyone since her daughter is still under observation.
Maliwal, who began her dharna on Monday morning, left the hospital on Tuesday afternoon after failing to meet the survivor.
Maliwal, said while the police and hospital authorities prevented her from meeting the girl and her mother, they allowed the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights chairperson to interact with the mother.
“It is extremely unfortunate that even though I waited for over 24 hours outside the hospital and even slept there, the Delhi Police and the hospital authorities disallowed my meeting with the survivor or her family. Despite my repeated requests, I was not allowed to meet with the survivor or her family, which is an illegal act, both by the Delhi Police and the private hospital (sic),” the letter read.
She alleged that the police and the hospital authorities “misused their power” to stall the DCW’s functioning.
In a post on X, Maliwal said in Hindi, “Had I not come to meet the girl, they would have said that I didn’t bother to see her. Now, when I am here, they are saying it’s a drama. Politics has fallen to such levels that politicians cannot speak the truth.”
Khakha, was recruited as a Welfare Officer in the Delhi Government in 1998. He has worked in the WCD and social welfare departments for the last 25 years. He also dealt with rights and welfare of vulnerable groups and children, according to his social media profiles and official documents. In his work profile on LinkedIn, Premoday Khakha says he aims at “building relationships to protect humanity.” His LinkedIn profile says he was a resource trainer on child protection, Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. He was also the superintendent of the juvenile home where the minor accused in the Nirbhaya case was detained.
He has a 21-year-old son and a 22-year-old daughter.