The Haryana Police registered two fresh first information reports (FIRs) against former state police chief S.P.S. Rathore and other officers on Tuesday, for allegedly lodging false cases against Ruchika Girhotra’s brother, trying to kill him and fabricating the post-mortem report after her death.
With that, the national outcry against the trifling six-month sentence awarded to Rathore on December 22, for molesting 14-year-old Ruchika — who committed suicide three years after the incident — appeared to have made its first dent.
In New Delhi, Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to quickly appeal for enhancing the six-month jail term, and find ways to file a fresh case against Rathore for abetting Ruchika’s suicide.
The FIRs were registered on the basis of complaints lodged by Ruchika’s father S.C. Girhotra and her brother Ashu earlier in the day.
“We have decided to register fresh cases, taking into consideration the seriousness of the case,” Panchkula superintendent of police Maneesh Chaudhary said.
Ruchika was molested by Rathore in 1990. She killed herself after being expelled from school, allegedly at Rathore’s behest, and finding her brother falsely implicated in 11 cases of car theft and tortured by the police, all in a bid to make her withdraw her complaint.
{{/usCountry}}Ruchika was molested by Rathore in 1990. She killed herself after being expelled from school, allegedly at Rathore’s behest, and finding her brother falsely implicated in 11 cases of car theft and tortured by the police, all in a bid to make her withdraw her complaint.
{{/usCountry}}Ruchika’s father said in his complaint that Rathore had deployed policemen in civvies around his house after his daughter lodged her complaint. After her suicide, her post-mortem report said she died due to excessive consumption of slimming medicines, which was a “blatant lie”.
“On December 28, 1993 when I found my daughter unconscious, I tried to take her to a nearby hospital, but the area police told me to take her to PGI (Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh) with a threat that if I did not, they would kill me and my son,” he said.
Stating that Ruchika died the next day, his complaint added: “The Panchkula police did not hand over her body despite my begging and touching their feet throughout the day, crying, sitting outside the mortuary.”
“I was crying helplessly and touched the feet of the ASI to kindly hand over the body. My son was in the custody of the Sector 6 police (but) he the (assistant sub-inspector) told me to shut up otherwise my son would be eliminated,” Girhotra said in his complaint.
Girhotra said the post-mortem report had “blatant lies that Ruchika had consumed slimming pills.
“Likewise, my signatures were taken on some blank papers where one Veena had been shown as my wife,” he said.
Ashu, in his complaint, said he was repeatedly given “third degree torture” in Rathore’s presence.
“Rathore told me, ‘call your sister now’,” he said.
“I was told that if I cared for my life I should tell my sister to withdraw the complaint,’’ he said.
“When I asked for water, the police officer urinated in front of me in a glass and asked me to drink it,’’ Ashu said, adding that he fainted in the lockup.
Ashu said in his complaint that during Diwali, he was brought out of the police post and “paraded hand-cuffed and half-naked” in the lane where he lived.
Stating that he was later discharged in all the false cases registered against him at Rathore’s instance, he added that he still suffered from depression and trauma.
(With inputs from New Delhi)