Chandigarh,December 28
A public interest litigation(PIL) petition seeking, among others, action against the management of the city-based Sacred Heart School for having expelled, on flimsy grounds, a promising tennis player Ruchika in the wake of her molestation in 1990 by senior Haryana cadre IPS officer SPS Rathore, has been preferred in the Punjab and Haryana High Court here.
While in school, Ruchika was weeping all the time in the classroom, and instead of providing a shoulder and counseling Ruchika was expelled from the school in order to provide comfort to the Rathore's daughter, who was Ruchika's classmate.
The petitioner wondered that even the CBI to whom the case was handed over, did not press the charge under Section 306 IPC(abetting the commission of suicide )although it should have been under Section 305 IPC (abetment of suicide committed by child, minor ) which provides for punishment of death or imprisonment for life or imprisonment for 10 years and fine).
Ranjan Lakhanpal, a human rights activist, has stated in the PIL that it was true that the molestation of Ruchika was not the only case which led to her suicide, the incidents which took place after molestation, which included registration of false cases against Ashu, attempts by
Rathore to implicate the whole family in false cases, harassment of the family, expulsion of Ruchika from school and other incidents were all sequence of events which eventually led to the suicide.
The PIL has prayed for directions to order an independent probe into the Ruchika suicide case right from day one when she was molested till the final decision in the case passed by special judge, CBI, Chandigarh. The petitioner wants action against all those officers/ officials who sided with Rathore and enabled the trial to continue for 19 years.
Lakhanpal has also sought directions for registration of a case against Rathore for implicating Ruchika’s brother Ashu in 11 cases of theft and illegally detaining him and torturing him for two months. It has also prayed that the court may also lay down guidelines to deal with such like cases where accused happened to be a well-placed person in the society/ government.
Rathore also tried to implicate the father of Ruchika in false cases in order to pressurise them not to pursue the case against him. Rathore has only been handed down minimum punishment only for molestation and has not been charged for the offences pertaining to other actions like registration of false cases, harassment, torture etc., nor punished, Lakhanpal added.
