Bureaucrat held for sexual assault

New Delhi: An Indian Engineering Service (IES) officer was arrested on Sunday for allegedly sexually assaulting a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University. He also stalked, abused and threatened to kill the woman, the police said.

The accused has been identified as 26-year-old Rakesh Meena, a native of Rajasthan, who was presently working as an assistant executive engineer in the ministry of road transportation and highway.

The victim, who is in her early 20s, on Monday filed a complaint at the Vasant Kunj (North) police station, alleging that the officer had been harassing her since 2012 when she was a minor.

She had been facing the abuse for the last five years, but couldn’t muster the courage to approach the police, said a senior police officer.

“On Sunday, we had received a compliant against the officer that he has been sexually assaulting the complainant since 2012. He was called for questioning and was arrested immediately thereafter,” said additional deputy commissioner of police Chinmoy Biswal.

In her complaint, the victim stated that Meena had been stalking, harassing and threatening to kill her as well. He uses to send obscene text and pictures to the victim on social media.

The accused and the victim used to stay in the same locality in Alwar, Rajasthan. They became friends, but the accused started harassing her and she started avoiding him, a police official said.

“She told the police that she had asked him to stop calling and messaging her, but he didn’t pay heed to her and continued to harass her,” Mr Biswal said.

During interrogation, Meena told the police that he knew the complainant for the past couple of years and the two had got into a fight. “He claimed that they were friends for many years. The woman did not want to be in touch with him, but he continued to harass her,” said a senior police official.

The police have booked the accused under sections 4/8 of Pocso Act because the victim, now in her early 20s, was a minor when the abuse began. Meena has also been booked under 354 (assault), 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (following a woman), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), and 509 (insulting modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.

“After the accused’s arrest, he was produced before a city court after which he was sent to judicial custody,” said Mr Biswal.