Court notice to CBI,Rathore over closure reports

Both the parties have been asked by the court to file their replies to the petitions by October 4,about four weeks from today.

The CBI had filed its closure report in a case of forging signature of S C Girhotra,Ruchika’s father,and tampering with Ruchika’s post-mortem reports,stating that the eyewitness accounts were not sufficient proof. In another case pertaining to custodial torture of Ashu Girhotra,Ruchika’s brother,the CBI report mentioned that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the allegations. The court had accepted the closure reports then.

In the fresh petitions filed against the closure reports,Prakash has mentioned that in the case of tampering with the post-mortem reports,he himself was a witness,but was not consulted by the CBI. In the case of the custodial torture of Ashu,the statement of witness Vijay Dheer was not recorded while statements of all other irrelevant witnesses were recorded.

In 1990,Ruchika Girhotra,a 13-year-old student of class X in Panchkula,was allegedly molested by Rathore. On registering a complaint,her father and brother suffered torture at the hands of the highly influential Rathore. Ruchika was expelled from school and her brother was charged with theft. In 1993,unable to cope with the circumstances,she committed suicide.

In 2009,Rathore was pronounced guilty of molesting Ruchika,and was sentenced six-moth imprisonment. The two other cases,against which petitions have been filed by Prakash,were also closed in June 2012. Rathore’s punishment had been increased to 18 months but he was granted bail in November 2010.