A 51-year-old assistant director in Delhi’s women and child development (WCD) department and his 50-year-old wife have been arrested for alleged sexual offences against a Class IX schoolgirl in 2020-21.

A senior police officer said that the Burari police station in north Delhi was informed of the matter on August 12, after the girl told a counsellor at a charitable hospital about the alleged multiple rapes by family friend Premoday Khakha between November 2020 and January 2021.

“The girl, now 17, is getting treatment for panic attacks, during which she told all this to the counsellor,” the officer said.

He added: “She was sent to stay with that family after her father passed away in October 2020. When she told her aunty — Seema Rani, wife of Premoday — about what was happening, the woman threatened her and made her take abortion pills. She later returned to her mother.”

The officer said: “The doctor (treating the girl) said that she was very stressed and unable to testify before a magistrate immediately, which is why it has taken time to make the arrests. After her 164 (CrPC section under which a magistrate records a statement) was recorded today, the accused (who had been taken into custody, earlier today) were placed under arrest.”

The accused have been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences and sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Khakha was suspended from service on Monday.