New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday suspended a senior government official who has been booked for the alleged rape of his friend’s minor daughter.
Kejriwal has asked the chief secretary to give him a report by 5 pm Monday.
It is alleged that the deputy director in the Women and Child Department raped the girl and impregnated her.
The girl was staying with the accused and his family at their house after her father passed away on 1 October, 2020.
The accused allegedly raped the girl several times between November 2020 and January 2021, a senior police officer told news agency PTI Sunday, adding that his wife has also been charged for giving her medicine to terminate the pregnancy.
The Delhi government has warned of “the sternest possible action” against the officer if he is found guilty.
A government statement said: “He (the accused) is a deputy director in the WCD Department. Since an FIR has been lodged in the alleged matter, the law should take its course. The Delhi government is sensitive in regard to such serious matters of women’s safety and child abuse. If he has committed any such reprehensible act, the sternest possible action should be taken against him.”
The alleged crime came to light when the girl, who is in Class 12, recently narrated the incident to a counsellor at a hospital where she was admitted following an anxiety attack.
Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Swati Maliwal questioned why this officer with a “rapist mentality” had not been arrested.
“He has been a deputy director in the WCD for decades. He repeatedly raped a 16-year-old. Then he and his wife tried to abort the child which made her fall ill. Why has he not been arrested,” Maliwal said.
She also sought to know from the Delhi government whether there were previous complaints against the officer and what action was taken. Maliwal said a very serious inquiry should be instituted against him. “How do we save Delhi’s women and children if protectors turn rapists,” she asked.
#WATCH | "A government officer who was sitting on the post of Deputy Director in the Women and Child Development Department for so long, has been accused of raping a 16-year-old minor girl and when she got pregnant, he and his wife tried to abort the pregnancy. We have issued… pic.twitter.com/3KbgNWICeF
— ANI (@ANI) August 21, 2023
Also read: SC allows rape survivor to terminate pregnancy, says conception outside marriage is injurious