PATNA: Income tax joint commissioner Rambabu Gupta was arrested on Wednesday on the charge of sexually exploiting a 16-year-old Sikkim girl. Gupta, a 2005 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, belongs to Sonbarsa in Sitamarhi district of Bihar . The victim is from Namchi district in south Sikkim.Police sources said she is a medical aspirant and took admission in ‘Eklavya Super 50’ three months back. Gupta runs the institute since 2012. He is posted as joint commissioner in audit section at the Patna zonal office of income tax department. He was arrested from Raghukanti Palace in Yaduvanshi Nagar at Railway Colony under the Digha police station area in Patna. Gupta occupies a room in one of the flats used as hostel for girl students of his coaching institute.The victim’s father is a havildar in Sikkim police and reached Patna on Tuesday after the victim informed him on Monday that Gupta tried to sexually exploit her twice last week. “On February 16, Gupta entered the victim’s room while other students were busy watching a movie in another room. She ran away and saved herself. On the next day, Gupta called her to his room and touched her private parts,” a police officer said quoting the FIR lodged by the victim.“In her statement, she also mentioned that Gupta pressurised her for marriage,” the police officer said.Patna zonal IG Nayyar Hasnain Khan said Gupta was arrested after the victim lodged a complaint with the Digha police station and an FIR was registered under relevant sections of IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act late on Tuesday night. “He was sent to jail,” Khan said.“A few batchmates of Gupta had requested some senior police officials to visit his hostel as he was being threatened for life and implicated in false cases,” a police officer said and added, “Police reached there to investigate the matter when the victim broke down and narrated her ordeal. Gupta has an estranged relationship with his wife. The victim also handed over to the police an audio clip in which Gupta is heard threatening her to hush up the matter and apologizing for his misdeeds.”The police officer said preliminary investigation revealed that two more girls had earlier left the institute after allegedly molested by Gupta. “We are trying to trace those girls,” he said.

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