Case filed against Haryana DGP

CHANDIGARH, DEC. 31. The Haryana police have registered a case against its Director General, Mr. S.P.S. Rathore, for allegedly molesting a teenaged girl who later committed suicide.

A First Information Report (FIR) was lodged in a Panchkula police station, a town in the suburbs of Chandigarh in Haryana territory last night under section 354 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The case was registered after a fortnight of the Supreme Court's order upholding the Punjab and Haryana High Court directions to the State police to register a case against Mr. Rathore for molestation which would be probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The victim committed suicide after three years of alleged molestation in 1990 by Mr. Rathore when State police arrested her family on charges of car theft against her brother.

On the basis of the report prepared by then DGP, Mr. R. R. Singh in which a prima facie case was established against Mr. Rathore, the case was pursued by Mrs. Madhu Parkash and her husband Anand Parkash whose daughter was a friend of Ruchika. Attempts were made to sideline Mr. Singh's report and Mr. Rathore allegedly managed to circumvent the administrative inquiry ordered against him.

In 1997 Mrs. Madhu Parkash managed to get hold of the report and moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court which ordered that an FIR should be filed against Mr. Rathore and the case should be investigated by the CBI.

Mr. Rathore went to the Supreme Court against the High Court's order and questioned the locus standi of Mrs. Madhu Parkash in the case. However the Supreme Court, on December 14, upheld the High Court's order.

No official was available for comments as to whether Mr. Rathore will continue in office.

Meanwhile, several non-government organisations and some women rights activists have taken exception to the appointment of Mr. Rathore as an ex-officio member of the new nine-member Haryana State Women Commission.

- UNI

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Section  : Regional
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