Thaindian News

Panchkula (Haryana), Dec 30 (IANS) With support for teenaged molestation victim Ruchika Girhotra coming from all quarters, her family and friends are now seeking the death penalty for former Haryana top cop S.P.S. Rathore, who molested her and allegedly hounded her till she killed herself.
Ruchika’s father Subhash Chander Girhotra said that Rathore should be hanged till death.

“He has killed my daughter by misusing his official position. He has ruined my son and my family. We are virtually homeless today. We want the death penalty for him (Rathore),” Girhotra said here Wednesday.

Girhotra’s family has virtually been living in hiding for over 16 years after Ruchika was molested by Rathore, a former director general of police (DGP) of Haryana. She committed suicide three years after the molestation as Rathore allegedly used illegal means to harass her family and got her brother arrested in a false car theft case.

Anand Prakash — father of Ruchika’s friend Aradhana, who fought the legal battle against Rathore for 19 years and got his conviction in the molestation case by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Chandigarh last week — also demanded the death penalty for Rathore.

“We want life for life. This man should also suffer for his deeds,” Prakash said.

Rathore, meanwhile, was slapped with two fresh first information reports (FIRs) by the Panchkula police Tuesday evening.

The former DGP has been booked on serious and non-bailable criminal charges like attempt to murder, criminal intimidation, forging evidence, wrongful confinement, fabricating false evidence and criminal conspiracy. Other police officers who had allegedly colluded with him have also been charged.

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily Tuesday said that his ministry was exploring all possibilities of legal action against Rathore. He said that the Ruchika molestation case was being treated as a “model case” for dealing with such cases in the future.

Moily said that the law ministry was examining whether the harsher Section 305 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) — abetment of suicide of a minor, which entails death penalty or life imprisonment — could be imposed against Rathore instead of Section 306 (abetment of suicide).

Ruchika, 15, a budding tennis player was molested by Rathore here Aug 12, 1990. After she and her friends complained to the Haryana government, Rathore allegedly harassed and tortured her, her brother and the rest of her family, misusing his position as a senior police officer.

Ruchika, unable to cope with the harassment of her family, committed suicide three years later by consuming poison.