Molested by official in place of worship, minor tells cops

The 51-year-old Delhi government official Premoday Khakha, now suspended and arrested, allegedly molested the minor girl at the independent Amazing Grace church in Burari — a small cult of sorts of 30-odd families that is not affiliated to any official diocese — whenever he saw her there after February 2021, police said, citing the statement of the 17-year-old rape survivor.

- Karn Pratap Singh

This was a time when the girl, who was in Khakha’s care after her father’s death, was allegedly raped and impregnated by him at his home in Burari between October 2020 and January 2021, and had returned to her mother’s house after her pregnancy was terminated, police added.

It was because of the alleged repeated molestation incidents in the church premises that the minor stopped going there from July onwards, the girl has told the police.

Allegations of “bad touch” by Khakha, and “touching hands appropriately” at the church are also mentioned in the first information report (FIR) registered on August 13 based on her first statement recorded by police under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on August 12, at least two police officers associated with the case, told HT.