A FEW FACTS ABOUT RUCHIKA

Former Haryana police chief SPS Rathore has got away with a six-month sentence for molesting a 14-year old girl, Ruchika Girhotra, who killed herself three years later while desperately searching for justice, it is mainly due to a glaring lacuna in the 150-year-old Indian Penal Code, which does not have any provisions for child victims of sexual molestation.
CBI had actually opposed the addition of this charge before a Chandigarh trial court.
In 2001, when Madhu Prakash, mother of Ruchika’s friend Anuradha, filed an application for charging Rathore under Section 306 IPC —abetment of suicide—which could have put the ex-DGP behind bars for up to 10 years, the CBI opposed it.The trial court was not convinced by the CBI’s opposition and accepted Madhu Prakash’s application. On Rathore’s revision petition, the Punjab and Haryana high court gave a reprieve to Rathore on February 12, 2002, citing CBI’s written opposition dated October 20, 2001.
How Sec 306 Got Dropped
1. CBI told HC it had ‘thoroughly examined’ statements of witnesses who said DGP created ‘hell-like’ conditions for Ruchika.
2. Ruchika was expelled from school for not paying fees, not due to extraneous pressure.
3. Ruchika’s Grandfather Daya Ram, and two maternal Uncles, both named N S Chauhan, certified cause of death to be medicines she was taking to lose weight.
4. Though he claimed to have been framed in theft cases, her brother Ashu didn’t make himself available for CBI examination.