Inquiry ordered against school in Ruchika molestation case

The Chandigarh administration has ordered a probe against the school which had expelled Ruchika Girhotra after her molestation by former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore.

The probe, ordered by Education Secretary Ram Niwas, has been initiated to ascertain the causes which led to the expulsion of then 14-year old Ruchika, official sources said here today.

"We have instituted an inquiry. Sub Divisional Magistrate Prerna Puri has been made the inquiry officer. It will be time bound probe and we have asked her to complete the task within a week's time," Niwas said.

He said though it was a very old case and most of the principals and members of the management have changed, "but still we have been able to dig out some circumstantial evidence. We will be able to place whatever material is available on record before the public."

Madhu Parkash, mother of Aradhana, a friend of Ruchika, who has been pursuing the case, had filed a complaint with the Chandigarh Administration against the local convent institution Sacred Heart School alleging harassment to the girl as Rathore's daughter was also a student of the same class.

Though the school did not offer any comment, sources said the expulsion was ordered about 19 years ago by the then management, which has changed many times over the years, and the present school authorities have no clue to the reasons which resulted in the expulsion of Ruchika.

Rathore a 1995 batch IPS officer of Haryana, who retired in 2002, was awarded a six months jail term by a CBI court here last week for molesting Ruchika, a budding tennis player in 1990 when he was an IGP. Ruchika died on this day in 1993 after consuming poison.

PIL filed in HC in Ruchika case
Meanwhile,u00a0a PIL was on Tuesday filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court here seeking a probe into the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case, including her expulsion by a local school, and the subsequent harassment of her family.

Chairman of the NGO World Human Rights Council (WHRC) Ranjan Lakhanpal, a local advocate, sought a thorough probe into the molestation, circumstances leading to the suicide of Ruchika three years after the molestation by then IGP SPS Rathore in 1990, booking of her brother Ashu in false cases.

A local convent school-Sacred Heart School-which had expelled Ruchika, even though she had studied for about 11 years, on flimsy ground of non-payment of fees, has also been made a party.

"When the minor was weeping, the school instead of giving her a shoulder to lessen her miseries and give her proper counselling, expelled her on flimsy ground of non-payment of school fees," Lakhanpal said adding the PIL has been filed in the Registry of the High Court, which is presently closed for winter vacation.