Panchkula, December 30
Director-General of Police, Haryana, RS Dalal constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to investigate criminal cases registered against former state DGP SPS Rathore here today.

Rathore was booked by the Panchkula police on the charges of attempt to murder, forgery, illegal confinement and many other offences yesterday after receiving complaints from Subhash Chander Girhotra, father of Ruchika, and her brother, Ashu.

Three others, Sub-Inspector Prem Dutt and Assistant Sub-Inspectors Jai Narayan and Sewa Singh, were also booked under various sections of the IPC.

A spokesman of the Haryana Police said the SIT comprised Inspector-General of Police SS Kapoor, Panchkula SP Maneesh Chaudhary, Panchkula DSPs Samiti Chaudhary and Varinder Singh, Inspector Aman Kumar, SHO of the Sector 14 police station of Panchkula, Inspector Tarsem Lal and Inspector Laxmi Devi, both from state crime branch. The committee headed by Kapoor would ensure that the investigation was carried out expeditiously, he added.

While all police records pertaining to the case would be provided to the committee, the panel would also procure judgments delivered by various courts, including the high court and the Supreme Court, sources said. It would also procure records from the PGI, where Ruchika died on December 29, 1993.

Panchkula, December 30
While former Haryana Director-General of Police SPS Rathore filed an application for grant of anticipatory bail in a local court here today, his wife and counsel Abha Rathore pleaded before the District and Sessions Judge SP Singh that Rathore was the victim of media hype and all the judicial system has been abrogated.

There was no truth in the allegations on the basis of which Rathore was booked and being presented as a convict by the media. Rathore, who was yesterday booked for various offences, including attempt to murder, was himself present in the court.

As counsels of Rathore sought two days to provide full particulars of criminal cases, Justice Singh deferred the hearing till January 1.

Justice Singh observed: “In the absence of the exact nature of FIRs and the nature of the offences under which those FIRs have been registered, it would not be proper to pass an order for interim bail. The alleged FIRs were registered against the petitioner yesterday. Since petitioner is present in person before me, I do not visualise his immediate arrest under those FIRs and thus, I hereby post this bail application for January 1, 2010, so that case is heard and decided appropriately.”

Pleading for anticipatory bail for Rathore, Abha Rathore said the former DGP was booked due to media hype. There was no truth in the allegations levelled against him, she said. Media was a party in the case so how they could write about this, she said. There were many people from the media who were in litigation with Rathore as they were sued for defamation by the petitioner, still they were involved in writing against Rathore, she added.