Ruchika molestation case: Court to deliver verdict on Rathore on May 20

Chandigarh, May 11 (ANI): A court in Chandigarh will pronounce its verdict on former Haryana Director General of Police S P S Rathore's plea challenging his conviction in Ruchika molestation case on May 20.

Rathore has three cases pending against him in the court, all filed by Ruchika's family and friends.

Ruchika's family lawyer Pankaj Bharadwaj had earlier filed two FIRs against Rathore.

The lawyer had claimed that the first FIR was filed for forging documents like the inquest report and the other for illegal detention of Ruchika's brother, Ashu, who was kept in illegal detention and tortured at the behest of Rathore.

The third case is that of abetment to suicide against him. The family has alleged that Ruchika was expelled from Sacred Heart Convent in Chandigarh due to Rathore's influence.

Teenager Ruchika had killed herself three years after the incident by drinking poison.

The CBI is investigating whether Rathore drove Ruchika to suicide after she filed molestation charges. An inquiry by the Chandigarh administration has found that Ruchika was unfairly expelled from her school in 1990. The report also concluded that the expulsion took place under pressure from "an external influence".

The Special CBI court had earlier held the former cop guilty under Section 354 IPC and sentenced him to six months imprisonment and had imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on him.

Rathore has been stripped off his meritorious police service medal.

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil has gave her assent to the Union Home Ministry after the ministry approached her on the issue last month.

The Union Home Ministry had said that Rathore should be stripped of the medal for bringing "disrepute or disrespect" to the service.

The ministry had made the recommendation after the Central Police Awards Committee (CPAC) met at the Home Ministry in a meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary G. K. Pillai.

Rathore was given the police medal in 1985 for his meritorious service. His name was recommended by the then Om Prakash Chautala Government in Haryana. (ANI)