Plea against Ruchika's school filed in high court

A Public Interest Litigation was filed on Tuesday in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh seeking a probe into the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case, including her expulsion by a local school, and the subsequent harassment of her family.

World Human Rights Council (WHRC) Chairman Ranjan Lakhanpal, a local advocate, sought a thorough probe into the molestation, circumstances leading to the suicide of Ruchika three years after the molestation by then IGP S P S Rathore in 1990 and booking of her brother, Ashu, in false cases.

A local convent school, Sacred Heart School, which had expelled Ruchika even though she had studied for about 11 years on flimsy ground of non-payment of fees, has also been made a party.

"When the minor was weeping, the school instead of giving her a shoulder to lessen her miseries and give her proper counselling, expelled her on flimsy ground of non-payment of school fees," Lakhanpal said, adding that the PIL has been filed in the Registry of the High Court, which is presently closed for winter vacation.

In the PIL, Lakhanpal said the school was equally responsible for the circumstances that led Ruchika to commit suicide three years after her molestation.

The school had probably taken the action against Ruchika under pressure of Rathore whose daughter was also studying in the same class, he said.

Lakhanpal also demanded action against all those responsible for the delay in the investigation of the molestation and suicide cases, torture of Ruchika's brother as also registration of false cases, expulsion of the minor girl from her school and mental harassment caused to the family of S C Girhotra, the father of Ruchika.

"We have also demanded that the court lay down guidelines for taking action in such cases so that victims do not suffer in future and the accused do not go scot-free," he said.

Lakhanpal also said he sought enhancement of the six month sentence to Rathore who was awarded the minimum sentence by a local CBI court for the offence of molestation of the minor girl.

Rathore, a 1995 batch UPS officer of Haryana, who retired in 2002, was awarded a six months jail term by a CBI court in Chandigarh last week for molesting Ruchika, a budding tennis player in 1990 when he was an IGP.

Though Ruchika died on this day in 1993 after consuming poison, the retired IPS officer was not tried for abetment to suicide, as the CBI did not press charges under section 306 IPC.