Politicians of various hues, including the former Haryana Chief Ministers Om Parkash Chautala and Bhajan Lal, are giving different versions of their role in shielding and promoting the former 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 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 Mr. Rathore under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (abetment to commit suicide).
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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 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.
He said that the Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime should initiate suitable suo motu action against those police officers and officials who tortured the victim’s brother.
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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 Mr. Rathore and his accomplices.
Meanwhile, it is being revealed that Mr. Rathore even mounted pressure on the premier investigating agency — the CBI — which completely ignored the complaints of 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 Mr. Rathore under Section 306 for reasons best known to it.