Ruchika Girhotra's family has formally complained to the police against police officials for protecting SPS Rathore and have asked for two new First Information Reports (FIRs) to be filed against the former Haryana top cop, who molested the 14-year-old in 1990.
The complaints have been filed by Ruchika's family's lawyer on Tuesday. He says now that he has documents to back his claims, he's accusing Rathore of dereliction of duty, and of misleading the investigation against him.
The Centre had said yesterday that complaints should be treated as FIRs. However, Panchkula police has said it will consult legal experts and decide by Tuesday evening on registering the FIRs.
PIL to be filed against Ruchika's schoolMore and more questions are being raised about why Ruchika was expelled from her school. It's alleged that once again Rathore used his influence to have her removed. This isolated her further and compounded her depression. A PIL will now be moved in the matter.
Ranjan Lakhanpal, Senior Advocate says that they will file a case against everybody involved, including the school.
Ruchika Girhotra studied in Sacred Heart, one of Chandigarh's most prestigious schools. In 1990, she was in Class X when the then Inspector General of Police S P S Rathore molested her. Within weeks after her family filed a complaint, Ruchika was expelled from school.
Her family was told she had paid the fees late. But they were not convinced.
"Rathore used his influence. One day the Principal called me and told that we are removing her from the school. Don't send her to school any more," says Ruchika's father S C Girhotra.
The expulsion isolated Ruchika mentally and contributed to her depression. And most of her classmates knew nothing about it.
"We had heard that she was going abroad and we thought she has gone abroad after the incident, that's why she is not showing up and we had also heard that she had left school, that's it," says Geetanjali Giyatri, Ruchika's classmate and former student at the Sacred Heart School.
The school is keeping mum on why such action was taken against Ruchika, but say off the record that some disciplinary action was taken against her. However, they don't want to elaborate on that.
"We will be seeking action against the school also as to why she was expelled, what were the reasons, and under whose pressure it was done," says Ranjan Lakhanpal, a senior lawyer in Chandigarh.
"I think school should have taken a very responsible role in this case. You see without knowing the facts they were suppressed by the police force. Is that the way schools in our country going to run?" says Kirat Sodhi, a teacher at St Stephen's School, Chandigarh.
Imagine a girl in her mid-teens, molested, expelled from school, harassed and threatened by a supposed law keeper and repeatedly being denied justice. Pushed to the edge, Ruchika committed suicide three years later.
The first FIR sought to be registered accuses Rathore of fabricating documents related to Ruchika's death and the inquest that followed. In 1993, at the age of 17, Ruchika killed herself by drinking poison. Today is her 16th death anniversary.
After Ruchika filed a complaint against Rathore, he allegedly retaliated by harassing her family. Under pressure from him, Ruchika was expelled from school - Sacred Heart in Chandigarh. Her brother, Ashu, was framed in a series of theft cases and was jailed. He was released only after Ruchika died. (Read: Inquiry ordered against school)
The second, accuses Rathore of falsely implicating Ashu Girhotra.
Rathore retired in 2002 as Director-General of the Haryana Police. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to six months in prison. National outrage has followed the sentence and the discovery that Rathore was protected by politicians.
A series of police officers and the CBI, who investigated the case, say it's clear that Rathore used his position as one of Haryana's most senior policemen to persecute the Girhotras.
From 1990, when he committed the crime, to 2000, Rathore enjoyed a free run. A police inquiry had recommended action against him, but four successive chief ministers of Haryana did not allow this to happen.
On Tuesday morning, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has also been filed asking for action against all those who shielded Rathore. It also asks Ruchika's school to explain why it expelled her, a move that depressed and shamed her. (Read: PIL filed against Ruchika's school)
Govt asks Ruchika's school to explain her expulsionSixteen years after Ruchika Girhotra committed suicide unable to bear the trauma of being molested and expelled from school, the Chandigarh Home Secretary has ordered an inquiry against Sacred Heart school where Ruchika studied. The school has been asked to explain why she was asked to leave.
The action comes following nation-wide outcry against the grave injustice a traumatised teenager had to undergo. As her classmates have narrated how Ruchika became the object of her peers' gossip after the ex-Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) molested her; the school had asked her to go citing flimsy charge that her fees had not been paid on time. Ruchika incidentally had been attending the school for 10 years.
Quick takes:
* School wasn't coming forth with any reaction
* So Home Secretary ordered enquiry
* Ruchika's friend Aradhana's mother had written to him
* PIL against Rathore asking case to be reopened (Read: PIL to be filed against Ruchika's school)
* School ordered to give their side of the story
* She had become the talk of the school then she was expelled, added to her depression
Ruchika's father Subhash Chandra Girhotra has said how the ex-police official used his power to get Ruchika expelled from her school and against CBSE norms.
"Rathore had illegitimately used his influential position to get Ruchika removed from the school. My daughter took admission in that school in nursery class and studied there for 13 years," SC Girhotra told reporters in Chandigarh on Sunday.
"The school authorities did not give us any substantial reason behind her sudden expulsion from the school. They cited some late fees related issue as a reason behind this, which was totally baseless," he added.
Ruchika was studying in Sacred Heart School in Sector 26. Coincidently, Rathore's daughter was Ruchika's classmate in the same school.
Also lashing out at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Girhotra said: "Rathore was the only reason behind the suicide of my daughter and I do not know why CBI did not include the abetment to suicide charge against him. Now we will again file a case in the higher court and appeal to include this charge against Rathore."
Lawyer Pankaj Bhardwaj, who has fought the Ruchika case free of cost for the last 13 years, said that there were many loopholes in the CBI's inquiry.
The school still doesn't have a counselor.
