Justice may not have been entirely denied in the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case — with former Haryana DGP S.P.S. Rathore getting a six-month jail term — but it was painfully delayed.
Anand and Madhu Parkash fought a 19-year battle to get justice for their daughter’s friend Ruchika, a
14-year-old tennis player who committed suicide in 1993, apparently traumatised by the harassment her family had to face.
It took the couple more than nine years to get the case registered.
Anand said bureaucrats and “politically influential people” made all efforts to bail out Rathore. They could not hush up the case, but they delayed justice, he said. Those who aided Rathore included a former CM and a former DGP, he alleged.
The battle for justice started soon after the Parkash couple heard of the molestation.
Anand and parents of other tennis players gave a written complaint to the Haryana home secretary on August 16, four days after Ruchika was molested. “On August 17, 1990, the Haryana chief minister asked the then DGP R.R. Singh to inquire into the matter,” Anand said.
After completing the inquiry, Singh submitted his report to the government with the observation that prima facie a case could be registered, Anand said.
However, the home minister kept the file with him for more than six months, Anand said. Later, O.P. Chautala, who took over as chief minister appointed R.K. Hooda as the DGP. Hooda recommended a departmental inquiry against Rathore.
After the endorsement by the home minister and chief minister, the chargesheet was approved on May 28, 1991.
But Rathore used his clout to block the chargesheet and later have it withdrawn, Anand said. Rathore started using his position to harass Ruchika’s family, he added.
Ruchika’s brother Ashu was booked in about a dozen cases of theft. He was also kept in illegal confinement and allegedly beaten up by the police.
The file recommending the registration of a case against Rathore, which went missing, resurfaced on January 3, 1994, barely four days after Ruchika’s death, and a note was made that the charges against Rathore be dropped, Anand said.
In April 1994, the charges against Rathore were dropped.
Finally, Madhu filed a petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court on November 26, 1997. The court directed a CBI probe.
“Though Rathore filed many court cases, including defamation, against me, my wife and even my daughter, I did not bother and continued the fight,” said Anand. “These cases too would end after the verdict against Rathore.”