By IANS,
Chandigarh: After shying away earlier Tuesday from commenting on former Haryana director general of police (DGP) S.P.S. Rathore’s conviction for molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra, former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala did a turnaround later and welcomed the court verdict.
Chautala, who had earlier said that he had nothing to do with “such frivolous cases”, later Tuesday said that the guilty (Rathore) should have been punished.
Rathore was DGP of Haryana (October 1999-December 2000) when Chautala was the chief minister.
Washing his hands of Rathore episode, Chautala said here that he (Chautala) had removed Rathore from the DGP’s post when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) started probe into the molestation incident.
Chautala said: “Rathore was promoted as DGP during the then chief minister Bhajan Lal’s Congress regime and in year 2000 when the CBI initiated the probe against Mr Rathore on the Ruchika case, Mr Rathore was removed from the post.”
The former chief minister said that Rathore had been promoted to the rank of DGP by the governments prior to him.
Brushing aside the controversy earlier, Chautala had said: “Main bekaar baaton mein nahin padta (I don’t get into such frivolous issues). I don’t want to comment. Leave me alone.”
A special CBI court here Monday held Rathore guilty of molesting 14-year-old Ruchika in Panchkula, near here, Aug 12, 1990, and sentenced him to a six-month prison term. The teen-ager committed suicide three years after the incident.
Rathore was an inspector general of police at that time and was charged of molesting the minor girl in his office as president of the Haryana Lawn Tennis Association (HLTA) in Panchkula.
Ruchika committed suicide three years after the incident in December 1993 following continuous mental harassment of her and her family to pressurise them to withdraw the case against the all-powerful Indian Police Service (IPS) officer.
Chautala demanded a CBI probe into the recent allegations of sexual harassment of female personnel by senior Haryana police officers at the Haryana Armed Police complex at Madhuban near Karnal.