CHANDIGARH, NOVEMBER 21: Nothing can compensate for the loss of my daughter but at least the man who drove her to suicide should be punished. That is the least I can expect,'' says an emotional Subhash Chandra Girhothra, father of Ruchika, who was allegedly molested by a senior Haryana police officer in 1990 and committed suicide in 1993. The CBI has now chargesheeted S P S Rathore, who is now the Director-General of Haryana Police but the state government remains silent.Girhothra, who was accompanied by his son, Ashu, and daughter-in-law Kavita, told The Indian Express, somewhere near Chandigarh, how he was driven from being a reasonably successful bank manager to being a social outcast and had to finally take refuge in an ashram in Calcutta. Back on his feet today, he is still a broken man, afraid to be seen in the city and tormented by his past. He was wronged but it was his family the police came after.``When we registered our complaint against Rathore with the state government, the Haryana police virtually laid siege to our house, banging on the door, warning us to withdraw the case and threatening us. Ashu was afraid to leave the house even during the day as he would be accosted by plainclothesmen and dragged to the thana.''Girhothra is upset that the CBI has not charged Rathore with abetment to suicide. ``In my deposition, I had told them that it was not a case of suicide for personal reasons but simply because of tension. The tension of having the policemen harass her family, especially her younger brother.''He remembers distinctly the night Ashu was first picked up by the police for an alleged vehicle theft. He was picked up and released six times. ``I suddenly felt somebody had robbed me of everything. He was only 14 then. We didn't sleep the whole night.'' Ruchika, he remembered, was very upset and feeling guilty that Ashu was being harassed because of her. ``But I never thought she would take the extreme step,'' he says.Those men of the law kept on coming back. A few months after the first arrest, they intercepted Ashu when he was with his friends at the local market, once again on the allegation of a car theft. ``My son was almost paraded around the sector in a bid to embarrass all of us.''Ashu suppresses an involuntary shiver when recalling those days. ``Whenever I asked the policemen what my fault was, I was told `ask your father'. They used all kinds of third-degree methods on me to put pressure on me and my family to depose in favour of Rathore in the various court cases.''The support of friends and neighbours did help - the entire neighbourhood accompanied the family when they went to register a complaint with the Chief Minister. And, of course, for Anand Prakash and his wife, Madhu, parents of Ruchika's friend, Reemu, it became a personal mission. ``I am indebted to them,'' says Girhothra.When the terror became unbearable, he ran. ``I escaped to save my life; otherwise I would have lost it as I lost my property here. I had little reason to leave the city I loved, but I disposed of everything here to stay somewhere outside to avoid the harassment meted out to me and my family in Panchkula.'' Ashu, too, left, after the death of his sister. ``I then realised he would go to any extent to harm us,'' he says.But the state government remained indifferent and unmoved. ``I am still scared to come to Chandigarh. On my last few visits I was shadowed by men in plainclothesmen.''Only the judiciary has kept their hopes alive, says Girhothra. ``We are now reassured that the case will reach its logical end in the courtroom. We are prepared to depose in court at an appropriate time,'' he says.
