Politicians of various hues, including former Haryana Chief Ministers Om Parkash Chautala and Bhajan Lal, are giving different versions regarding their role in shielding and promoting former Haryana Director General of Police S. P. S. Rathore who was convicted last Monday and sentenced to six months in jail for molesting a 14-year-old school-going tennis player in August 1990.
The victim later committed suicide in 1993.
The political blame game is at its peak and there is a strong clamour for revisiting the 19-year-old case and trying Rathore under Section 306 of the IPC (abetment to commit suicide).
There is already a move to reduce to his pension and strip him of the Police Medal awarded to him.
However, a senior retired bureaucrat told The Hindu that the then Congress regime headed by Bhajan Lal failed to prevent the police atrocities the family of the victim was subjected to, especially her younger brother who faced several false cases and was paraded in the locality where he lived.
“Obeying illegal orders”
He said that the present Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime should initiate suitable suo motu action against those police officers and officials who harassed and tortured the victim’s brother.
A local advocate, Rohit Dheer, added that criminal cases should also be registered against these police officials , whether serving or retired, for “obeying the illegal orders” of Mr. Rathore.
Suitable compensation must be given to the family of the victim by attaching the properties of Rathore and his accomplices.
Pressure on CBI
Meanwhile, it is being revealed that Rathore even mounted pressure on the premier investigating agency — the CBI — which completely ignored the complaints regarding harassment and torture of the victim’s brother and did not even record his statement.
It has already come to light that the CBI did not challan Rathore under Section 306 (abetment to commit suicide) for reasons best known to them.
