Rathore charged with abetting suicide, arrest imminent

PANCHKULA - A fresh case was Tuesday registered against former Haryana police chief S.P.S. Rathore, who was charged with abetting the suicide of teenager Ruchika Girhotra three years after molesting her. Sources in the Haryana police said that Rathore could be arrested anytime now.

The fresh first information report (FIR) charges the former director general of police under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code for abetting the suicide of Ruchika in 1993, three years after he had molested her, police officials said.

The FIR has been filed after Ruchika’s brother Ashu had filed a fresh complaint last week seeking that Rathore be booked for abetment of suicide of his sister.

Ruchika, who was molested by Rathore here Aug 12, 1990, when she was just over 15 years old, had committed suicide Dec 28, 1993 by consuming a poisonous insecticide.

The disgraced former Haryana DGP has been accused of torturing Ruchika’s brother by getting false cases of car theft slapped on him, inflicting third-degree torture on him in police custody and harassing the Girhotra family between 1990 and 1993.

All this reportedly led to Ruchika finally committing suicide in December 1993.

Rathore was last week booked by the Panchkula police in two different cases, charging him of attempt to murder, forging and tampering with evidence of Ruchika’s death, criminal conspiracy and wrongful confinement. Most of the charges slapped against him in both FIRs are non-bailable ones.

The complaints for the two FIRs were made by Ruchika’s father S.C. Girhotra and brother Ashu.

On Friday, Rathore managed to secure interim relief on his anticipatory bail application from the district and sessions court here till Jan 7, when his bail plea in these two cases comes up for hearing again.

Rathore was convicted by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in Chandigarh Dec 21 for Ruchika’s molestation and sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000.