Noida: NTPC executive accused of raping 11-year-old, held

NOIDA: A 45-year-old NTPC official has been arrested for allegedly raping an 11-year-old girl for over a year on the pretext of helping her with studies at his home. The girl, a student of a prominent Noida school, confided in one of her teachers, who informed her parents. An FIR was lodged this Sunday.
The accused, Akhil Gupta, who has a college-going daughter and a son who studies in Class VIII, was arrested on Tuesday morning.Circle officer Piyush Singh said the accused had been booked under IPC Section 376 (rape) and sections 3 and 4 of the POCSO Act.
Gupta’s family shared close ties with the girl’s parents and the 11-year-old would often visit the NTPC official’s house to get help in her studies. Both Gupta and the girl’s family live in the same housing society.
Police said the accused would make the girl and his son sit in different rooms when she went to his house and instructed his wife not to disturb him while he “taught” the children.
According to the FIR lodged at Phase 3 police station, the girl’s parents got a call from her teacher on May 16 and learnt that Gupta had been assaulting their daughter for the past one year.
“The director of the school asked us to come for a meeting. We took along two close friends from the housing society. After returning from the school around 4.30 pm, the child kept sleeping till 8 pm. When we asked her about her problems, she started crying,” reads the FIR. Asked repeatedly, the child eventually described to her mother how Gupta would touch her inappropriately and assault her in his room. “Earlier, he would only kiss her on the cheeks, but later he started kissing her on the lips. The misbehaviour increased with time. At one point, he would grope her and even assault her,” the girl’s mother alleged.
The mother said that on August 15, when she and her husband were not at home, Gupta took the girl to his house and assaulted her repeatedly. He would molest her on several occasions.
“When his wife would call me to her house, the accused would sneak into our room, knowing that neither my husband nor I am there. When I confronted him on one occasion, he said he had come to give books,” the FIR states.
While the girl’s father works as a senior executive in a Delhi-based private company, Gupta works with NTPC but is on deputation with Power Finance Corporation.
The school counsellor and parents of the girl have now approached Childline and lodged a complaint at Phase 3police station. Gupta was arrested on Tuesday morning from his house in the society.
Satya Prakash, manager at FXB Suraksha, Childline, said, “The girl would have possibly been confused on whether to reveal anything to her parents because of the ties that the families shared. It is possible she shared her discomfort with someone she felt she could trust. In this case, it seemed to be the school teacher.”