By IANS,
Chandigarh : Tainted former Haryana police chief S.P.S. Rathore, convicted and sentenced to 18 months in jail for molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra in 1990, would share a cell with at least seven other prisoners, most of whom are convicted cops.
Rathore was Tuesday examined by a government doctor in the Burail Jail here before being formally placed in a prison cell.
“Rathore would be accorded an ordinary convict’s status. He would be given ordinary prison food and nearly seven tainted cops are also lodged in the same barrack,” a source in the high security Burail Jail said.
However, since the jail is comparatively small, Rathore would not be given a prisoner’s number.
Many dreaded criminals, including terrorists Jagtar Singh Hawara and Paramjit Singh Bheora, convicted for assassinating Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995, are also lodged in the Burail jail.
Earlier, when formally placed unnder arrest and sent to Burail Jail after the district and sessions court confirmed his conviction and enhanced sentence, a government doctor examined Rathore in jail on the court’s directive.
“Rathore said he had some medical complications and complained about poor health. We called a doctor from the government hospital in Sector 16 to check his health and condition,” Assistant Inspector General (Prisons) N.P.S. Randhawa told IANS.
“We are taking full care of Rathore’s medical requirements,” he added.
In a desperate attempt to save Rathore from going to jail, his wife and counsel Abha Rathore pleaded with Additional District and Sessions Judge Gurbir Singh that Rathore had an appointment with a doctor at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here at 4 p.m. Tuesday and was not keeping good health.
However, the judge turned down the plea and directed that documents regarding his medical condition be given to the jail superintendent.
The judge earlier Tuesday enhanced his jail sentence from six months to 18 months.
Rathore, 68, was taken into custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) soon after the court rejected his appeal against his December 2009 conviction in a CBI special court.
Abha Rathore also reached Burail Jail to meet her husband Tuesday evening but she was not allowed to go inside as the meeting time for visitors was over.
She then gave some medicines, clothes and some documents (health reports of Rathore) to the security personnel, who were deployed outside the jail.
Rathore, a former director general of police (DGP) in Haryana, filed a plea in January challenging his conviction December last year by a CBI special court here for molesting 15-year-old Ruchika Aug 12, 1990.
Ruchika committed suicide three years after Rathore molested her in Panchkula town, adjoining Chandigarh.