Delhi Minor Girl Rape Case: DCW Chief Swati Maliwal Continues Dharna After Sleeping At Hospital

New Delhi: Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal continued her ‘dharna’ at a hospital, where she spent the Monday night after being stopped from meeting the 16-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by a senior Delhi government official.

Taking to X (formally Twitter) she wrote, “Since 12 noon yesterday, I am sitting outside the hospital to meet the victim girl or her family. Slept outside the hospital at night. The NCPCR can be introduced to the girl’s mother, so why have I been asked to stop? What are you trying to hide?”

Speaking to news agency ANI on Tuesday, she accused Delhi Police of indulging in hooliganism. “They are neither allowing me to meet the girl nor her mother. I can’t understand what the Delhi Police want to hide from me. I have been told that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson was allowed to meet the girl’s mother. When the NCPCR chairperson can meet the mother, why is the DCW chief not being allowed to do the same?” she asked.

“I want to know whether she is getting all the possible help or not and whether she is getting proper treatment or not,” she added.

On Monday, Delhi Police arrested Premoday Khakha, a deputy director of the Delhi government’s women and child development department, and his wife for the alleged rape of a teenaged girl — a friend’s minor daughter who was in their care — between November 2020 and January 2021.

Hours after his arrest, Khakha was placed under suspension by the government.