Chandigarh, February 8
Former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore escaped bid on life as a 29-year-old youth from Benaras, posing as a journalist, attacked him soon after he came out of the CBI court here today.

The accused, identified as second-year student of the National Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad, Utsav Sharma attacked Rathore with a knife while the former DGP and his wife, Abha Rathore, were proceeding towards their car to have lunch. Rathore received cuts on the cheek and the neck and was taken to the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital in Sector 16 where he received two stitches. His advocate ND Sharma also received injuries on the hand.

Rathore was in the CBI court in connection with the hearing in the fresh cases filed against him by the Girhotra family in the Ruchika molestation case.

SSP SS Srivastava said preliminary investigations indicated that the accused was a psycho and had been residing in Panchkula for the past two months. He said the accused had told the police that he was disturbed over the injustice in the Ruchika molestation case and had come to Panchkula a month ago. The SSP said Utsav’s father Sushil, a professor in Ahmedabad, had confirmed that his son was mentally disturbed and was getting treatment.

Srivastava said the attack seemed to be fully planned as the accused had brought with him a camera and was trying to mingle with journalists present at the site.

Meanwhile, Additional District and Sessions Judge RS Attri has postponed the hearing on the appeal pertaining to Ruchika Girhotra molestation case till February 10. The postponement came following an attack on SPS Rathore outside the court premises.