Rathore denied pre-arrest bail, judge finds charges shocking

Former Haryana Director General of Police S.P.S. Rathore was denied anticipatory bail on Friday by a sessions court in connection with two FIRs registered against him in the case of the molestation of budding tennis player Ruchika Girhotra way back in August 1990.

Additional district and sessions judge Sanjeev Jindal dismissed two anticipatory bail pleas, each of Rathore and co-accused ASI Sewa Singh, relating to the two new cases registered against them under non-bailable charges like attempt to murder, criminal intimidation, forging evidence, wrongful confinement, fabricating false evidence and criminal conspiracy..

Mr. Rathore and Sewa Singh had filed the petitions following registration of the two FIRs on Decr 29 on the basis of complaints lodged by Ruchika's brother as part of a criminal conspiracy to force her to withdraw her complaint, false theft cases were foisted on him, he was hand-cuffed and paraded from his home.

Mr. Rathore, who has already been convicted by a CBI trial court of having molested Ruchika on August 12, 1990 when she came to the lawn tennis association of which he was then the president, has still not moved for bail in the third FIR, which charges him with abetting the suicide of Ruchika three years after the incident by continuously harassing her family to force her to withdraw the complaint.

Immediately after the court rejected Rathore's petition,the victim’s lawyer Pankaj Bhardwaj questioned the inaction by the Haryana police. “Why is Rathore not behind bars? By dismissing the anticipatory bail, the court has made it clear that his custodial interrogation is indispensable to the investigation in the case. The police must act upon this and arrest him immediately.”

Aradhana Gupta, Ruchika's classmate in tenth standard in Sacred Heart Convent School and sole eyewitness to the molestation, termed the court order a “significant step.”

Rejecting Mr Rathore's plea for pre-arrest bail, judge Jindal said " the alleged offences not only prick the conscience of a common man but also cast a spine-chilling and hair-raising impact on one's psyche relating to the alleged inhuman torture meted out to the complainants [Ruchika's father and brother] at the behest of the applicant-accused".

The judge said: “Even otherwise, keeping in view the fact that the applicant accused, being an IPS officer, had held high official positions throughout his service, including DGP, and had a considerable political clout, the possibility of [his] tampering with evidence and intimidating the witnesses directly or indirectly cannot be ruled out, as could be inferred from the previous conduct of the accused".

The judge upheld the contention of Mr Pankaj Bhardwaj that "since the criminal conspiracies were not hatched sitting in drawing rooms in the presence of the witnesses, the same can be unearthed only through the custodial interrogation of the accused".

The court upbraided the State of Haryana for not filing a reply to the present bail applications and in seeking adjournment for up to three weeks. "The delay gives a clear-cut impression that the law officers and police officers of the State are either incompetent or are intentionally dilly-dallying [in] the matter under the buckling double pressure".

He further said:" Moreover, in view of the specific allegations leveled in both FIRs, it was the burden and legal duty of the State to oppose both bail applications tooth and nail, thereby seeking custodial interrogation of the applicant-accused, instead of seeking time for filing the reply".

The order said the public prosecutors and police were "oblivious or incompetent", not bothering to include Section 466 (relating to injury involving economic loss and harm caused to any person in body, mind, reputation etc.) of the IPC in both FIRs". Instead, th registered both FIRs under the provision of 467 (relating to forgery of a document relating to monetary transaction, valuable security and wills, etc.)

"Thus the conduct in this respect becomes deplorable and is condemned in the strongest possible terms", the judge observed.

- Asian Tribune -