French official Pascal Mazurier was arrested at 5.30 a.m. on Tuesday by the police and subsequently remanded in 14 days’ judicial custody by a court here on the charge of raping his three-and-half-year-old daughter.
Mr. Mazurier is the Deputy Head of Chancery at the French Consulate here.
Tuesday's arrest came four days after a complaint was filed by child's mother Suja Jones Mazurier, who had submitted a medical test confirming rape to the police on June 14.
The alleged act was committed on June 13.
But an FIR was registered only on June 15 by the police, who claimed that they were unable to act unless they had written confirmation on Mr. Mazurier's diplomatic status. Even after the FIR was registered, the police refused to take into account the medical test results of a private hospital and put the child through another harrowing test at a government hospital.
However, on Tuesday, senior police officials confirmed that the arrest was based on the first medical test conducted at the Collaborative Child Response Unit (CCRU) of Baptist Hospital.
‘Informal fact-finding'
In a significant development, a senior security attaché from New Delhi arrived here on Tuesday and proceeded straight to meet Ms. Mazurier.
Geetha Menon, Ms. Mazurier's lawyer, told The Hindu that the official's brief was to conduct an “informal fact-finding.” She said the French mission had informed Ms. Mazurier of the official's arrival the previous night.
In the first official comment from New Delhi since the incident, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur told television channels on Tuesday: “We all condemn this crime because there can be nothing worse than this. As far as the French national is concerned, we were waiting for them [French consulate] to give us the status. Now [that] the status has been declared, the law will take its own course. And we will certainly not stand in the way of any process of law taking its course and punishing the offender of this crime. It has been communicated that he does not have a diplomatic passport, he only has an official passport and that does not give him immunity.”
Elected MP for French Overseas Pascal Chazot said all the demands of the mother and the children would be fulfilled by the French government. “It's very shocking. We need to know the truth about such terrible allegations.” All support for the child would be provided by the government, Mr. Chazot said.
