Chandigarh: SPS Rathore, convicted of molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra, will stay in jail for now. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison in May by a Haryana court and is currently in Burail Jail.
Rathore, represented by his wife, Abha, has appealed for bail to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The court has said it will consider the bail application later this month. "Given the seriousness of the offence, the bail cannot be granted so early," said the judge.
Fourteen-year-old Ruchika, a promising tennis player, was molested by Rathore who was president of the Haryana Tennis Lawn Association in 1990. After a formal complaint against him, Ruchika and her family were allegedly persecuted relentless by Rathore. In 1993, she killed herself by drinking poison.
Rathore's career was not scarred by this and he retired in 2002 as Haryana's senior-most policeman.
He was given 18 months in prison after Ruchika's family and the CBI appealed for a harsher punishment than the six-month sentence given to him in December 2009.