M A I N   N E W S

CBI officer’s revelation gives new twist to Rathore tale
Charge of Abetment to Suicide
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 28
The revelation by a former CBI Joint Director RM Singh that former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore had managed to get the charge of abetment to suicide dropped from the CBI chargesheet by influencing his senior colleagues has added a new dimension to the controversy over the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case.

Perturbed over the just six-month imprisonment to Rathore, the public has been demanding that he should have been tried on the charge of abetment to suicide under Section 306 of the IPC also, which carries a punishment of 10 years.

During the trial of Rathore, Madhu Prakash, mother of Aradhana, a friend of Ruchika, had filed an application for addition of Section 306, IPC. Though the trial court had accepted her plea, its orders were quashed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

At that time along with Rathore, the CBI had also opposed the invocation of Section 306, IPC, against Rathore.

The former CBI officer’s claim has put a big question mark on the line of investigation conducted by the premier investigating agency of the country.

Additional Solicitor-General of India Mohan Jain said here today that though RM Singh took too long to speak up, yet what he had said made the Ruchika case a fit case for reopening. The CBI first must conduct an internal inquiry to find out how the charge of abetment to suicide, which RM Singh had recommended in his report, was dropped at the higher level.

He said the CBI should also find out the circumstances under which his senior officers removed RM Singh from the case. Jain said after Rathore alleged that RM Singh had demanded bribe from him and he had evidence to prove his allegation, it was the duty of the senior CBI officers to go deep into the matter and find out who was right - Rathore or RM Singh.

Dr Naresh Mittal, a resident of Panchkula, who too played an active role along with the family of Aradhana in pursuing the case against Rathore, said RM Singh’s version supported what they had been saying all along; that the former DGP had been adopting all means to hush up the case.

Now, he said, the government must act and take steps to reopen the case.

CBI officer tipped Prakash to fight his own battle
Arun Sharma
Tribune news Service

Panchkula, December 28
Even as the CBI tried its level best to delay the case, the determination of the complainants - Madhu Prakash and Anand Prakash - saw the Ruchika molestation case reaching the logical conclusion, resulting in the conviction of former DGP SPS Rathore.

It was not only CBI Joint Director RM Singh, who was allegedly approached by Rathore for favour, even the team of central investigative agency that visited Ambala and Patiala and then for the hearing of case in Chandigarh was also stalked by men of Rathore.

However, one of the officials in the CBI team had tipped Anand Prakash suggesting that he should not depend on the state in this matter.

“If you want to take the case to a logical end then do not leave it to the mercy of the state as it would not take even a minute for us to be won over (by Rathore),” said a CBI official to Anand Prakash in lighter vein.

Narrating this incident to The Tribune, Dr Naresh Mittal, one of the neighbours and victims of Rahtore, said Prakash and his family deserves kudos for bringing Rathore to justice, though the quantum of punishment hasn’t been to the satisfaction of masses. And he did it even as everybody, including myself, only discouraged him from taking so much pains after the case was handed over to the CBI, said Dr Mittal, adding, “It was at a similar instance when Prakash disclosed me the reason of his involvement.”

After the CBI filed chasresheet in January 2001in an Ambala court Anand Prakash had no major role to play, said Dr Mittal. Still he made it a point to remain present there during the hearing of the case religiously and this routine of his continued when the case was transferred to a Patiala court and later at Chandigarh, he said.

It was on one such occasion that I suggested him not to go to court every time and leave it to the CBI only as he was rendered to a witness only while the case was being pleaded by the agency against Rathore, said Dr Mittal.

It was that time when Prakash told me the reason behind his desperation to attend all the hearings in the court, said Dr Mittal. Confirming the incident, Prakash said it was DSP Devi Singh of CBI a thorough gentleman belonging to Rajasthan.