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Ruchika’s school faces probe
The Chandigarh Administration on Monday ordered a probe into the expulsion of Ruchika Girhotra from the Sacred Heart School in 1990, four days after her molestation by former Haryana Director General of Police S.P.S. Rathore.
The Chandigarh Administration on Monday ordered a probe into the expulsion of Ruchika Girhotra from the Sacred
Heart School in 1990, four days after her molestation by former Haryana Director General of Police S.P.S. Rathore.
Last week, the CBI trial court had sentenced Rathore (67) to six months in jail for molesting 14-year-old Ruchika in 1990.
Three years later, Ruchika committed suicide after the police allegedly harassed her family at Rathore’s behest.
There are allegations that Ruchika was expelled on flimsy grounds for non-payment of school fees. Rathore’s daughter also studied in the same school.
Chandigarh Administration Home Secretary Ram Niwas said an inquiry has been ordered based on a complaint by Madhu Prakash, wife of Anand Prakash, who has been fighting the cases for Ruchika.
Sub-Divisional Magistrate Prerna Puri will conduct the investigation. One of Ruchika’s teachers said it wasn’t common to expel students on the basis of non-payment of fees, without imposing a fine or giving a month’s notice to the guardians.
In Prakash’s letter, received by the administration on Monday, she had raised questions over the arbitrary manner of Ruchika’s expulsion. Was a warning issued to the Girhotras for not depositing the fees? Was a penalty imposed for not paying fees and were the norms mentioned in the school brochure followed strictly? What do Ruchika’s school principal and teachers have to say about her expulsion?
“Since the cat is out of the bag, the school authorities shouldn’t hesitate in disclosing the real reasons — involving external pressures/applied,” states the complaint.
On Monday, a Chandigarh-based human rights body said it would approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court to register a case against Rathore for implicating Ruchika’s brother in false cases. Through a public interest litigation, the human rights body will also “seek directions for action against all those officials who sided with Rathore,” its chairman Ranjan Lakhanpal said.
