By IANS,
Chandigarh : The inquiry in the expulsion of teenaged molestation victim Ruchika Girhotra from her school here is still on and expected to be completed in a day or two, a senior Chandigarh administration official said Sunday.
“The inquiry is still under process and so far Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Prerna Puri has only talked to the principal, Sister Sebastina (of Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School) besides a few others. She is yet to write the report and would submit it to me in the next one or two days,” Home-cum-Education Secretary Ram Niwas told IANS.
He said the inquiry officer would also talk to other school officials including Ruchika’s class teacher before submitting the final report.
Puri had questioned the school principal Friday for over five hours. She also recorded the statements of complainant Madhu Prakash and her daughter Aradhana, who is the lone eye-witness in this case.
Ruchika was expelled from her school, without any explanation, just a month after she was molested by senior Haryana police official S.P.S. Rathore Aug 12, 1990. Rathore’s daughter was the classmate of Ruchika in the same school and according to Ruchika’s family, Rathore got Ruchika expelled to save his own daughter from embarrassment.
A magisterial inquiry had been ordered Dec 29 by Ram Niwas into the role of the school management into the expulsion of Ruchika and the inquiry officer asked to submit the report within a week.
Refusing to divulge any details about the ongoing inquiry, Ram Niwas said: “We cannot disclose anything about the report right now. Once I get the final report, we would ourselves make it public.” He assured all aspects of the case would be examined.
However, an official source said the administration is likely to nail school authorities for their dubious role in the case of Ruchika’s expulsion from school. “The inquiry officer has also found many anomalies in the school’s management while dealing with this case,” the source said.
However, the school’s spokesperson, Father Thomas Anchanickal claimed Ruchika was never victimized and expelled from the school, but had not paid her fees continuously for six months (April-September 1990) and “therefore her name was not carried on school register in the next month”.
Sources in the school management, however, said that no student before and after Ruchika was treated in the same manner for not depositing the fees.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Chandigarh Dec 21 held Rathore, who retired as Haryana’s director general of police, guilty of molesting 15-year-old Ruchika in Panchkula town in August 1990 and sentenced him to a six-month prison term. Rathore was immediately granted bail.
The budding tennis player had committed suicide three years after the incident.