SPS Rathore, accused in Ruchika case, stripped of his police medal - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Former Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) SPS Rathore, who has been charged for allegedly molesting 14-year old teenager Ruchika Girhotra, a promising young tennis star, in 1990, will be stripped of his police medal. The decision was taken after the Central Police Medal Awards Committee met at the Home Ministry in a meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary G K Pillai. According to reports, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had written to the Home Ministry recommending that the police medal given to Rathore be taken back. Rathore was given the police medal in 1985 for his meritorious service. His name was recommended by the then Om Prakash Chautala government in Haryana. Rathore was sentenced to six months in jail by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on December 21 for molesting 14-year-old Ruchika in 1990. Ruchika's family lawyer Pankaj Bharadwaj had filed two First Information Reports (FIRs) against Rathore. The lawyer had claimed that the first FIR was filed for forging documents like the inquest report and the other for illegal detention of Ruchika's brother Ashu, who was kept in illegal detention at the behest of Rathore and given tortures. The FIR for abetting Ruchika's suicide though has not been filed yet. However, Rathore managed to get an interim bail till January 7 in connection with the two FIRs filed against him. But, Rathore will be arrested once the police lodges a fresh FIR - that of abetment to suicide against him. Ruchika's family has alleged she was driven to suicide following her expulsion from school and after her brother was tortured and implicated in false cases by the police at Rathore's behest. They said all this was done to mount pressure on Ruchika to withdraw her complaint against Rathore.