Overreacting?

Iread the news about former Haryana Director General of Police S.P.S. Rathore being found guilty of molesting a minor today.

Iread the news about former Haryana Director General of Police S.P.S. Rathore being found guilty of molesting a minor today. Nineteen years after the incident had taken place and 16 years after the 14-year-old victim, Ruchika Girhotra, had committed suicide because of the harassment her family faced, Rathore was sentenced to six months in prison with a fine of Rs 1,000. As according to the law, he has been granted bail.

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I guess 19 years is a long time and Ruchika, if she had not overreacted and killed herself, would have been yet another 33-year-old who would have ticked the box in a survey with the question, “Have you ever been sexually abused?” and continued living her life. I see that you have reacted to my observation that Ruchika had ‘overreacted’. But then, when the court takes nearly two decades to come to a verdict and doles out a six-month Rs 1,000 sentence in accordance to the gravity of the crime, I would only be a model citizen to think that Ruchika’s family and friends had overreacted to pursue the case and Ruchika in killing herself.

My humble advice to Ruchika’s father S.C. Girhotra: avoid breaking any serious law, such as drinking and driving, which is a punishable offence that can land him in prison for six months and with a fine of
Rs 2,000. After all it’s not something as ‘frivolous’ as molesting a girl.

Mondy Thapar is a Delhi-based writer

The views expressed by the author are personal