CBI wants to close two cases against Rathore

AMBALA - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday told a court here that it wants to close two criminal cases registered against jailed former Haryana police chief S.P.S. Rathore due to lack of evidence.

The cases related to attempt to murder, criminal intimidation and forging evidence charges, among others, filed in December last year on the complaint of S.C. Girhotra, father of teenager Ruchika Girhotra who was molested by Rathore in 1990.

Rathore, 69, is currently lodged in the high-security Burail jail in Chandigarh, where he is serving 18-months sentence for molesting Ruchika, who committed suicide after the incident.

“A special CBI team had come from Delhi to file the closure report in two FIRs registered against Rathore. The report said that CBI has found no evidence to support the allegations against Rathore,” Ajay Kaushik, CBI lawyer in Chandigarh, told IANS.

Reacting on the CBI’s closure report, the court here issued notices to Girhotra and Ashu Girhotra, Ruchika’s brother.

The two FIRs were registered against Rathore on non-bailable charges like attempt to murder, criminal intimidation, forging evidence, wrongful confinement, fabricating false evidence, custodial torture and criminal conspiracy.

Another case in which Rathore was booked for abetment to Ruchika’s suicide is still pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh.

In its closure report filed in the Ambala court, the CBI claimed that the allegations could not be proved only on the basis of documentary evidence and oral testimony of witnesses.

Reacting to the CBI’s report, Girhotra told IANS: “The closure report will not give any relief to Rathore as abetment to suicide charges are still intact. We are sure that Rathore will get strict punishment for his crime,” Girhotra told IANS.

Rathore was sentenced to 18 months’ rigorous imprisonment by a district and sessions court of Chandigarh May 25.