Rathore booked for abetment to suicide in Ruchika case

Panchkula, Jan 5 (PTI) Six years after the CBI dropped
abetment to suicide complaint against former DGP SPS Rathore
in the Ruchika molestation case, Haryana Police in Northern
India Tuesday brought back the charge against the disgraced
officer by registering a fresh First Information Report.
The FIR, the third against Rathore since last week,
has been registered on the complaint of Ruchika's brother Ashu
which he filed on December 31, Superintendent of Police,
Panchkula, Maneesh Chaudhary told PTI.
Besides Rathore, four other police officers - then
Ambala SP K P Singh, ASI Jai Narayan, SI Prem Dutt and ASI
Sewa Singh - have been made co-accused in the FIR lodged at
the Sector five Police Station here, police said. The maximum
punishment under section 306 IPC (abetment to suicide) is ten
years imprisonment.
Rathore was recently handed down a lighter six months
imprisonment by a CBI court in Northern Indian city of
Chandigarh for having molested Ruchika Girhotra here on August
12, 1990.
The budding tennis player had attempted suicide at her
Panchkula residence on December 28, 1993 and died the
following day.
The earlier two FIRs against the top cop were
registered on the complaints of Ruchika's father Subhash
Chander Girhotra and Ashu for various offences, including
attempt to murder, torture and harassment and doctoring the
post-mortem report.
The SP said that the local police has recommended that
the third FIR also be entrusted to the seven-member Special
Investigation Team (SIT) headed by IGP (Security) S S Kapoor
probing the case. (More) PTI