The
Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to grant anticipatory bail to the
daughter and son of suspended Delhi government officer Premoday Khakha in a
case of alleged sexual assault of a minor girl by the arrested official.
I
have dismissed application at this stage, said Justice Saurabh Banerjee.
The
official's son and daughter, accused of abetting the crime, had approached the
high court last week seeking pre-arrest bail in the case after they failed to
secure the relief from trial court.
Khakha
has allegedly raped a minor girl several times between November 2020 and
January 2021, and is presently in judicial custody.
The
minor was the daughter of a person known to the accused, the police had said.
His
wife Seema Rani, who is accused of giving the girl medicine to terminate her
pregnancy, is also in judicial custody.
The
couple was arrested after the survivor recorded her statement before a
magistrate at a hospital.
A
case has been registered under 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), police said.
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.