Ruchika case: Court serves notice to Centre, Haryana and Rathore

CHANDIGARH - The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued a notice to the Central government, the Haryana government and former Director General of Police (DGP) SPS Rathore on a public interest litigation (PIL) moved by advocate Ranjan Lakhanpal asking for reinvestigation of the Ruchika molestation case.

The PIL also asked for probing the role of others who helped Rathore, including officials and politicians and the role of Ruchika’s school.

Rathore has been charged for allegedly molesting 14-year-old teenager Ruchika Girhotra, a promising young tennis star in 1990s.

Rathore interim bail in connection with the two First Information Reports (FIRs) filed against him ends on Thursday.

Arguing for anticipatory bail, Rathore’s lawyer wife Abha Rathore said on Thursday that the FIRs filed against Rathore were not legal, as the Supreme Court and the High Court had earlier quashed these cases.

Abha Rathore further said the FIRs were filed by Ruchika’s brother Ashu because of media hype and there was no evidence to prove that Ashu was tortured or harassed at Rathore’s behest.

Rathore was being falsely implicated, she added.

Ruchika’s family lawyer Pankaj Bharadwaj had filed two First Information Reports (FIRs) against Rathore.

The lawyer had claimed that the first FIR was filed for forging documents like the inquest report and the other for illegal detention of Ruchika’s brother Ashu, who was kept in illegal detention at the behest of Rathore and given tortures.

Ruchika’s family has alleged she was driven to suicide following her expulsion from school and after her brother was tortured and implicated in false cases by the police at Rathore’s behest.

They said all this was done to mount pressure on Ruchika to withdraw her complaint against Rathore.

Earlier, Rathore was sentenced to six months in jail by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on December 21 for molesting 14-year-old Ruchika in 1990. (ANI)