Experts trash fresh FIR move

Notwithstanding the euphoria generated by the slapping of two fresh FIRs against former Haryana police chief S.P.S. Rathore for allegedly harassing the family of Ruchika Girhotra and tampering with her post-mortem report, legal experts feel the move may not yield any results.

Notwithstanding the euphoria generated by the slapping of two fresh FIRs against former Haryana police chief S.P.S. Rathore for allegedly harassing the family of Ruchika Girhotra and tampering with her post-mortem report, legal experts feel the move may not yield any results.

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Rathore was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by a Chandigarh local court earlier this month for having molested the 14-year-old Ruchika in 1990.

Following public outcry after the court let off Rathore lightly, the Centre and the Haryana Government were forced to take fresh action against the former police officer.

However, legal experts feel the step of lodging the fresh FIRs “is too little too late” and would not serve any purpose.

Veteran criminal lawyer and former law minister Ram Jethmalani said: “Fresh FIRs after 19 years in this case is the most idiotic thing the police can do. This man has already been convicted after a trial and police had got time to present the evidence against him before the trial court. The FIRs are a knee-jerk reaction under media pressure. The only thing they could have done was to go in appeal before a higher court seeking enhancement of the punishment.”

Senior criminal lawyer K.T.S Tulsi said the new FIRs lodged without taking the permission of the court could “fall flat on its face”. “The police will face legal hurdles like a bar on putting a person to trial twice for the same offence which is not permissible under the Article 20 of the Constitution and section 300 of the criminal procedure code (principle of double jeopardy),” he said.

Criminal lawyer Sidharth Luthra said, “The new FIRs are not going to hold much water.”

Criminal lawyer in the Supreme Court and former Delhi High Court judge R.S. Sodhi was surprised that the police did not add charge of ‘abetment of suicide’ against Rathore for which he never been tried earlier.