Rathore’s parole plea rejected

CHANDIGARH - The authorities in Haryana’s Pachkula district Friday rejected the plea of disgraced former state police chief S.P.S. Rathore for parole to supervise the harvesting of crops at his agricultural land near here.

A meeting of district authorities decided to recommend to the Chandigarh administration that Rathore should not be granted parole from his 18-month rigorous imprisonment term that he is serving at Chandigarh’s high-security Burail jail following his conviction in the Aug 12, 1990 molestation case of teenaged tennis player Ruchika Girhotra.

The Chandigarh administration, which had got Rathore’s application for parole last month, had forwarded it to the Panchkula district administration for comments since his 2.5 acre agricultural land is near Raipur Rani town in the district, 45 km from here.

However, district administration officials in Panchkula got the land inspected and even videographed to show that nothing was growing on it and Rathore had no reason to be present there.

Senior officials in Panchkula remained tight-lipped about the recommendation made against Rathore.

“We got the land inspected and videographed. It is all barren. Nothing is growing there. Rathore has just cooked up an excuse to seek parole,” one official said, requesting anonymity.

Rathore’s conviction in the molestation case was upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court Wednesday. The high court dismissed his appeal against his conviction. It also dismissed his plea for release on probation.

Rathore, 68, was sentenced to 18 months’ rigorous imprisonment by the district and sessions court of Chandigarh May 25 and he had filed a revision petition challenging the sentence.

A former director general of police in Haryana, he filed a plea in January challenging his conviction December last year by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court here for molesting 15-year-old Ruchika in Panchkula town, 15 km from here.

Ruchika committed suicide three years after she and her family were subjected to harassment by the Haryana Police at the behest of Rathore.