Former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore will have to undergo his 18-month prison term with the Punjab and Haryana High Court today dismissing his plea challenging the sentence. Rathore is behind the bars for molesting 14-year-old Ruchika Girhotra about 20 years back.
Justice Jatinder Chauhan also dismissed a petition by 68-year-old Rathore seeking release on probation. The Sessions Court had enhanced his six-month imprisonment awarded by a trial court in December last year to 18 months in jail on an appeal by CBI and her family. Rathore’s escape with a lighter sentence had sparked an outrage.
Ruchika, a budding tennis player, had committed suicide three years after being molested by Rathore on August
12, 1990. Rathore’s lawyer-wife Abha Rathore had filed the review petition on his behalf in the High Court on May 26 seeking bail, a day after he was sentenced and jailed.