Ruchika molestation case: Blame-game begins

 A political blame game began Friday over the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case. While former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala denied promoting former top cop S.P.S. Rathore, convicted for molesting the teenager 19 years ago, and blamed former Congress governments for shielding him, the Congress said he was abdicating his responsibility."S.P.S. Rathore was chargesheeted during my government. Back then, when the complaint came, an FIR was immediately lodged. Yet my government was not satisfied with the action.

                          Therefore, we ordered a departmental enquiry into the case," Chautala said at a press conference in New Delhi."This is an incident of 1990 and at that time party's chief minister was Master Hukam Singh. And the moment it was brought to his notice he ordered an inquiry into the matter. After the inquiry's report, he was suspended."It was during the Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal governments that Rathore was promoted, not ours," he added."I am surprised why we are being blamed for this," Chautala contended.

                          A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Chandigarh had Monday held Rathore, former Haryana director general of police (DGP), guilty of molesting 14-year-old Ruchika in Panchkula town Aug 12, 1990 and sentenced him to a six-month prison term. Ruchika, a budding tennis player, had committed suicide three years after the incident.Chautala evaded questions on why a molestation case was not registered against Rathore despite his Indian National Lok Dal government was in power in Haryana in 1990-91.

                He also evaded the issue of his government recommending Rathore's name for the President's Police Medal in 1999, saying that the file must have been moved administratively.But Anand Prakash, the father of Ruchika's friend Aradhana who fought a long legal battle, did not buy Chautala's argument."He cannot blame only the Congress.  Even after R.R. Singh (the then Haryana DGP in 1990) gave his report recommending registration of a case against Rathore, the government took no action," Girhotra said in Chandigarh.