(Trigger Warning: Descriptions of sexual violence. Reader discretion advised.)
A Delhi court on Wednesday, 23 August sent the 51-year-old government official, arrested on charges of allegedly raping his deceased friend's minor daughter for months, and his wife, to a 14-day judicial custody till 6 September, police officials told The Quint.
The decision by Additional Sessions Judge (POCSO) Richa Parihar of Tis Hazari district court comes after the one-day judicial custody of the accused expired on Wednesday.
Investigation progress: “We are carrying out an investigation. The accused deputy director and his wife are being interrogated. Any other witnesses or accused will be made a part of the investigation," an official told The Quint.
The case: The now-suspended Women and Child Development (WCD) department official, who was arrested on Monday, 21 August, was accused of raping the teenager multiple times between 2020 and 2021. Meanwhile, his 50-year-old wife has been accused of terminating the minor's pregnancy by administering abortion pills. The minor survivor was staying with the couple for a few months after she lost her father during the pandemic in October 2020.
Who said what? Speaking to media on Wednesday, 23 August, the official's lawyer, Uma Shankar Gautam claimed that the allegations of pregnancy as "false."
He claimed that his client underwent vasectomy around 20 years ago in 2005. "The potency test, surgical manual examination has been completed," the lawyer claimed on 22 August.
In her Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) statement, recorded in front of a magistrate on Monday, the survivor named the accused, whom she referred to as "mama."
On 13 August, North Delhi's Burari Police filed FIR against the accused and booked him under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The incident, however, came to light earlier this month, when the girl began to experience "bouts of anxiety" which prompted her mother take her to the hospital, the Burari Police told The Quint.
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