By IANS,
Panchkula/New Delhi : Disgraced former Haryana police chief S.P.S. Rathore, convicted of molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra, Thursday landed in deep trouble as her brother emerged from the shadows after 16 long years and filed a fresh case accusing the cop of abetting her suicide.
The dramatic development, accompanied by brother Ashu’s first meeting with the media, came shortly after Home Minister P. Chidambaram said he was “very unhappy” with the way the case had been handled and with the six-month jail given to Rathore.
Addressing reporters in New Delhi, Chidambaram made no effort to hide where his sympathies lay in the case that has caught widespread attention over what many perceive as brazen police high-handedness.
“I am unhappy with the way charges have been framed, the trial has been conducted and the accused (Rathore) punished. I am very unhappy,” the minister said. “I will look into what the central government can do in this case.”
Chidambaram spoke frankly, a day after he met Ruchika’s distraught father S.C. Girhotra, who wants Rathore to face the gallows for driving his daughter to suicide.
A budding tennis player, Ruchika was 15-years-old when Rathore, then an Inspector General of Police, molested her. After she filed a complaint, she was thrown out of her school while her brother was falsely accused of stealing cars.
Hurt and humiliated, Ruchika killed herself in 1993. After that, the family virtually fled Haryana to escape Rathore.
On Thursday, a shaken Ashu, 32, told journalists that Rathore was present when the police tortured him. He accused the former Haryana police chief of driving his sister to suicide.
“The police did third degree torture on me,” he said in Hindi. “Rathore used to come and watch the torture.”
As media persons asked him for details, Ashu’s wife objected saying that he was not in a mental condition to reveal those details.
“My demand is that Rathore should be arrested and put behind bars,” Ashu added.
Meanwhile, a sessions court in Panchkula in Haryana turned down a plea by Rathore’s wife and counsel, Abha Rathore, seeking interim bail for him.
The dead girl’s family and many others feel that Rathore was handed a paltry six-month jail term and a penalty of Rs.1,000 because he was charged only with molestation and not with abetment to suicide.
Rathore, who won bail quickly, now faces possible arrest.
Ashu was accompanied by his father as well as Anand Prakash, father of Ruchika’s friend Aradhana, who fought the case against Rathore in the last 19 years, when he went to file the fresh charge in Panchkula.
“We have filed a fresh complaint with the police seeking registration of a case of abetment of suicide against Rathore and others. The complainant is Ashu,” family lawyer Pankaj Bhardwaj said.
“Rathore has been booked under non-bailable sections of the IPC (Indian Penal Code). Why are the police delaying his arrest?” the lawyer asked.
In a related development, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said it would seek enhanced punishment for Rathore.
“It was felt that six months imprisonment and a fine of Rs.1,000 is far from adequate, specially when the court in its judgment concluded that the offence has been proved. After consulting the ministry of home affairs and the law ministry, it has been decided to file an appeal in the competent court for enhancement of sentence to Rathore,” CBI spokesman Harsh Bhal said in New Delhi.
About charges of abetment to suicide against Rathore, the spokesman said: “The advice of the Solicitor General of India will also be taken.”