New Delhi, May 9 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the city police to respond to the bail plea of the wife of suspended Delhi government officer Premoday Khakha, who allegedly raped a minor girl several times and impregnated her.
Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to the Delhi Police on Seema Rani Khakha’s bail application and asked it to file a status report on the progress of investigation.
The court listed the matter for further hearing on July 5.
The high court had in February refused to grant default bail to the couple.
They assailed a trial court’s order denying them the relief of statutory bail contending that the charge sheet filed in the case was based on an incomplete investigation.
As per the Code of Criminal Procedure, an accused is entitled to default bail if the investigating agency fails to file a charge sheet before the court concerned within the stipulated time. The time frame depends on the offences invoked and was 60 days in this case.
Khakha has been accused of raping a minor girl several times between November 2020 and January 2021, and is currently in judicial custody after being arrested in August 2023.
The girl is the daughter of a person known to the accused, according to police.
The official’s wife Seema 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 provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (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. PTI SKV SKV SK
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