Defiant Rathore says molestation ‘case still not over’

CHANDIGARH - Disgraced but defiant former Haryana director general of police (DGP) S.P.S. Rathore Wednesday said the Ruchika Girhotra molestation “case is still not over” and he would soon approach a higher court to appeal against his conviction.

“Right now, I do not want to comment on the court’s verdict or about this case as it is still not over. I will further move an appeal in a higher court very soon,” Rathore told IANS from his Panchkula residence.

“I am not like other people (obviously referring to complainant Anand Prakash and his family), who are giving interviews on television or to the print media and to speak illogical things that come to mind,” Rathore added.

Rathore was Monday convicted by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here in the Aug 12, 1990, Ruchika Girhotra molestation case. The 14-year-old budding tennis player had committed suicide in December 1993, three years after the incident, following her and her family’s continuous harassment allegedly at the behest of Rathore.

Refusing to give an interview, saying he would do it at an appropriate time, Rathore said: “Personally, I do not have any grudge against the media and I respect its freedom. I would approach them only when the right time comes.”

Rathore, whose wife Abha Rathore, has stood by him during the entire 19 years of the molestation trial and was also his counsel, said even she did not want to say anything to the media at this stage.

The former Haryana DGP lives with his family in his sprawling bungalow at Panchkula’s Sector 6, 10 km from here, where the molestation incident took place over 19 years ago.

He had built a tennis clay-court at the rear of the bungalow for personal use.

Rathore, who was an inspector general in Haryana police when the molestation incident took place, continued to be promoted by successive governments in the state despite the charges against him. He became Haryana DGP (October 1999-December 2000) during the rule of chief minister Om Prakash Chautala.

But the complainants against Rathore, Anand and Madhu Prakash, whose daughter Aradhana was the prime witness to the molestation incident, and their lawyer say the punishment given to Rathore - six months in jail - is too little.

They have blamed the CBI for not putting up the charge of abetment of suicide against Rathore despite his actions driving her to suicide.

“The CBI did not file a charge sheet under section 306 as it said Ruchika took the extreme step because she was under depression. This is totally baseless. The Supreme Court has the power to book an accused under this section and we might appeal it for this,” lawyer Pankaj Bhardwaj, who fought the Ruchika case free of cost for the last 13 years, told IANS.