Blame game at its peak in Haryana

December 28, 2009 03:13 am | Updated 03:13 am IST - CHANDIGARH

Politicians of various hues, including the former Haryana Chief Ministers Om Parkash Chautala and Bhajan Lal, are giving different versions of their role in shielding and promoting the former Director-General of Police S. P. S. Rathore, who was convicted last Monday and sentenced to six months in jail for molesting a 14-year-old school-going tennis player in August 1990.

The victim committed suicide in 1993.

The political blame game is at its peak and there is a strong clamour for revisiting the 19-year-old case and trying Mr. Rathore under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (abetment to commit suicide).

There is already a move to reduce to his pension and strip him of the police medal awarded to him.

However, a senior retired bureaucrat told The Hindu that the Congress regime headed by Bhajan Lal failed to prevent the police atrocities the family of the victim was subjected to, especially her younger brother who faced several false cases and was paraded in the locality where he lived.

He said that the Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime should initiate suitable suo motu action against those police officers and officials who tortured the victim’s brother.

A local advocate, Rohit Dheer, added that criminal cases should also be registered against these police officials , whether serving or retired, for “obeying the illegal orders” of Mr. Rathore.

Suitable compensation must be given to the family of the victim by attaching the properties of Mr. Rathore and his accomplices.

Meanwhile, it is being revealed that Mr. Rathore even mounted pressure on the premier investigating agency — the CBI — which completely ignored the complaints of harassment and torture of the victim’s brother and did not even record his statement.

It has already come to light that the CBI did not challan Mr. Rathore under Section 306 for reasons best known to it.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.