After Rajasthan Chief Secretary Om Prakash Meena’s estranged wife accused him of molesting their daughter when she was in her teens, Mr. Meena on Sunday said the allegations were baseless, adding that a marital dispute had been going on for several years.
Mr. Meena’s wife Geeta Singhdeo, who is a Rajasthan Administrative Service officer, alleged that her husband had physically abused their daughter and ill-treated her when she was 13 years old. She produced a statement of her daughter, now 31 and living in Cardiff, the United Kingdom, to prove her charges.
Unfortunate, says official
However, Mr. Meena said the allegations had no basis. “It is unfortunate that my wife is making this kind of allegations. I have nothing more to add,” he told The Hindu. The couple have been living separately for five years.
Mr. Meena’s daughter has purportedly sent her statement to the Rajasthan High Court, where her mother has moved an appeal against a trial court’s order in her case of domestic violence and cruelty. She alleged that her father treated her as a burden and for every single rupee he spent on her, he abused her.
Though the message was sent by e-mail in April, Ms. Singhdeo said she was making it public now, as the investigation against her husband was not making any progress as he was in the top bureaucratic post in the State.
Mr. Meena’s daughter alleged that her father had thrown her and her mother out of their house on several occasions and locked the gate. “As a child, when I used to try to save my mother from my father’s beating, he and his two sisters would beat me also... My mother was told to give my father a male child or get out of the house so he could marry again.”
Accusing her father of sexually abusing her for two years when she was in her teens, the woman said she used to cry all night, not knowing what to do. “My human dignity, self-respect, mind and soul have been scarred for life because of this man,” she said.
