The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to grant anticipatory bail to the daughter and son of suspended state government officer Premoday Khakha in connection with 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, reported PTI. 


After the duo, who have been accused of abetting the crime, failed to secure relief from trial court had approached the Delhi High Court last week seeking pre-arrest bail in the case. 


It has been alleged that Khakha, who is currently in judicial custody, raped a minor girl several times between November 2020 and January 2021. According to the police, the minor was the daughter of a person known to the accused. Khakha's wife, Seema Rani who has been alleged to give the minor girl medicine to terminate her pregnancy is also in judicial custody. 


A case was registered against the couple under the 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), police said.


The couple was arrested by the police after the survivor recorded her statement before a magistrate at a hospital. 


As per a Hindustan Times report, Khakha told a court that he could not rape or impregnate a woman as he underwent a vasectomy in 2005


On August 21, Khakha's potency test was conducted by a borad of doctors comprising a urologist, sexologist, physician, and a psychologist at Delhi's Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital. 


The board of doctors opined that "he is very much capable of sexual acts" contrary to his claims that he had undergone vasectomy 18 years ago and is incapable of having sex. 


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.