New Delhi/Chandigarh, Dec 25 (IANS) A political blame game began Friday over the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case. While former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala denied promoting former top cop S.P.S. Rathore, convicted for molesting the teenager 19 years ago, and blamed former Congress governments for shielding him, the Congress said he was abdicating his responsibility.
“S.P.S. Rathore was chargesheeted during my government. Back then, when the complaint came, an FIR was immediately lodged. Yet my government was not satisfied with the action. Therefore, we ordered a departmental enquiry into the case,” Chautala said at a press conference in New Delhi.

“This is an incident of 1990 and at that time party’s chief minister was Master Hukam Singh. And the moment it was brought to his notice he ordered an inquiry into the matter. After the inquiry’s report, he was suspended.

“It was during the Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal governments that Rathore was promoted, not ours,” he added.

“I am surprised why we are being blamed for this,” Chautala contended.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Chandigarh had Monday held Rathore, former Haryana director general of police (DGP), guilty of molesting 14-year-old Ruchika in Panchkula town Aug 12, 1990 and sentenced him to a six-month prison term. Ruchika, a budding tennis player, had committed suicide three years after the incident.

Chautala evaded questions on why a molestation case was not registered against Rathore despite his Indian National Lok Dal government was in power in Haryana in 1990-91.

He also evaded the issue of his government recommending Rathore’s name for the President’s Police Medal in 1999, saying that the file must have been moved administratively.

But Anand Prakash, the father of Ruchika’s friend Aradhana who fought a long legal battle, did not buy Chautala’s argument.

“He cannot blame only the Congress. Rathore was never suspended during any government’s regime. No action was ever taken against him. You can check the records,” Prakash told IANS.

Following Chautala’s accusations, Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: “The government in Haryana is Congress-led. I have absolutely no doubt that there will be an appeal against the judgement and they (the Haryana government) will get it done quickly.”

Added former cental minister Renuka Chaudhary: “He wants to abdicate his responsibility not only as chief minister but also as a citizen of the country. Instead of doing it right, he is pointing fingers toward others. I am sure that the Congress will stand by what is right.”

On Thursday, Ruchika’s father S.C. Girhotra had blamed Chautala and the entire establishment in Haryana for the harassment that drove his daughter to suicide and forced his family to go underground.

“Chautala was the main person behind him. Rathore used to carry out all his (Chautala’s) wrong deeds. Chautala was behind him all the while. Even after R.R. Singh (the then Haryana DGP in 1990) gave his report recommending registration of a case against Rathore, the government took no action,” Girhotra said in Chandigarh.

As Chautala blamed former chief ministers Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal for promoting Rathore, Bhajan Lal’s son and Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) leader Kuldeep Bishnoi faulted Chautala for passing the blame.

Bishnoi said: “The Aug 12, 1990 incident and most of the other things like harassment of the family happened between 1990 and 1991. Chautala’s government was in power during this time. My father’s (Bhajan Lal’s) government came later.”

R. R. Singh, the Haryana DGP in 1990, who gave a report following an inquiry to then state home minister Sampat Singh and chief minister Hukam Singh saying that a molestation case be registered against Rathore, has now claimed that the political establishment at that time did not take any action against Rathore.

The Congress, which is now in power in the state, says that action should be taken against Rathore and he should be given harsher punishment. However, the party is keeping quiet on how its own chief minister of the time (1991-96), Bhajan Lal, took no action in the matter.