Will get abetment case reopened: Ruchika’s father

Girhotra,who had shifted to Shimla to escape Rathore’s atrocities,recalled how his son Ashu was picked up by the police two months before Ruchika committed suicide and released only after she was cremated. “It is as if this man was working with the sole agenda of devastating Ruchika and our family. I ran from pillar to post to find out my son’s whereabouts,but no one from the administration helped me. Everybody in the police knew that he was in the custody of the CIA in Ambala. This man is so heartless that he did not release Ashu even for his sister’s funeral,” said an emotional Girhotra.

He said the CBI possessed sufficient evidence to include charges of abetment to suicide against Rathore in its chargesheet,“but the agency too succumbed to Rathore’s pressure”.

He also blamed the Sacred Heart School for breaking the spirit of his daughter. “The school was more concerned about saving a criminal’s daughter from embarrassment rather than standing by Ruchika who had singlehandedly waged a battle against Rathore. They threw her out on frivolous grounds of not paying the fee. I was ready to pay late fee fine as well,but they did not listen to me,” he said.

Meanwhile,Ranjan Lakhanpal,a practicing lawyer of the Punjab and Haryana High Court,said he would file a PIL demanding reopening of the case.