A senior official of the Delhi government's Women and Child Development department has been booked for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor girl several times and impregnating her, police said on Sunday.

The officer’s wife has also been charged in the case for giving the girl medicines to terminate the pregnancy, they added.

The accused had allegedly sexually assaulted his friend's daughter several times between November 2020 and January 2021, a senior police officer said.

The matter came to light only when the girl, who is now in Class 12, recently narrated the incident to a counsellor at a hospital where she was admitted following an anxiety attack, the officer said.

The girl was staying with the accused and his family at their house after her father passed away on October 1, 2020. The accused used this opportunity to allegedly sexually assault her several times, the officer added.

When the minor allegedly became pregnant, she informed the wife of the accused who later asked her son to get medicines for pregnancy termination and gave them to the girl, the officer said.

The girl returned home with her mother in January 2021 when she came to meet her. She had an anxiety attack in August this year and her mother admitted her to St Stephens’ hospital, where the girl narrated the whole incident during the counselling session, the officer added.

Later, the hospital informed the Burari police station here and a case was registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, the police said.

The girl’s statement is yet to be recorded before the magistrate, the officer said, adding that an inquiry is being conducted into the matter.

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