Amid a public outcry over light sentence given to a former Haryana DGP convicted of molesting a minor girl, the complainant's counsel today said they will soon move the Supreme Court seeking enhancement of punishment and trial of the ex-top cop on charges of abetment to suicide.
SPS
Rathore was on Monday sentenced to six months of rigorous imprisonment for molesting 14-year-old Ruchika, a
budding tennis player, in 1990 when he was Inspector General of Police. The girl committed suicide three years later.
Pankaj Bhardwaj, a lawyer for Madhu Parkash, the mother of the victim's friend whose family had been fighting the caseall these years, said they will seek trial of Rathore for abetment to suicide -- a charge under which he was not tried.
Bhardwaj said they will seek harsher punishment for the former top cop.
Ruchika's family says that they were harassed after the complaint was lodged, with the girl being expelled from her
school and false cases being slapped against her brother.
Asked why the police officer was not tried for abetment to suicide after Ruchika's death on December 29, 1993,
Bhardwaj said, "When the premier investigating agency CBI itself does not prosecute Rathore for the offence under
section 306 IPC, what can one do?"
According to the order of the Chandigarh CBI Magistrate, the probe agency had sought trial under section 354 of the IPC relating to molestation.