S.P.S. Rathore was granted interim anticipatory bail by the Panchkula District and Sessions court on Friday on the fresh FIRs registered against him by the father and the brother of the budding tennis player who was molested and allegedly harassed by the former Haryana Director General of Police.
The bail, accompanied by a bond for Rs.1 lakh, stands till the next date of hearing, on January 7. The court also asked Rathore to submit himself to interrogation if police officials so wanted.
Rathore’s counsel and wife Abha alleged that the complainants had no proof to back their allegations, except “their own statements which they have updated according to their convenience after the media’s intervention.”
She said that after following all the investigations and legal procedures, the High Court and the Supreme Court quashed the case but due to media hype the family was changing its statements and forging documents.
District and Sessions Judge S.P. Singh noted that a prima facie case had been made out on the basis of only the defence counsel’s arguments which centred on the lack of documentary evidence to prove harassment.
“Most of the charges are bailable and the few that are non-bailable, are not true — not even as per the sequence of events made up by them in the complaint,” Ms. Rathore said. Pointing out what she termed one of the many contradictions in the statements, she said, “The girl’s brother was in legal police custody, as there were FIRs registered against him and at that time Mr. Rathore was IG-Telecom and had nothing to do with any harassment whatsoever.”
She added that even though the father of the girl married Veena in 1991, the family denied her existence and the role of the stepmother was never investigated, despite her signatures on the inquest proceedings as mother.
The lawyer of the complainants, Pankaj Bhardwaj, said: “There has been a total misrepresentation of facts before the court. There was no stepmother and during the inquest proceedings [in December 1993], the police came out with this character [Veena]. There is no such person. By January 7, we will submit all documents that will show the truth. We will oppose the bail.” Mr. Bhardwaj asked why the police did not arrest Mr. Rathore for three days after registering two cases against him, including under non-bailable sections like attempt to murder.
