Police to quiz Ruchika's principal

Chandigarh: Haryana Police is expected to question Ruchika Girhotra's principal Sister Sebastina of the Sacred Heart School in Chandigarh.

Sister Sebastina was the principal of Sacred Heart School when Ruchika was expelled from school in 1990, weeks after she was molested by senior policeman SPS Rathore.  

But the school, Sacred Heart in Chandigarh, still maintains what it said then - that she was expelled because fees had not been paid.

Father Thomas Anchanikal, spokesman for Sacred Heart School told NDTV on Friday that Ruchika had been expelled because her fees had not been paid for six months. He said he had checked school records.

Ruchika was 14 when she was expelled, within a month after being molested by a senior police officer in Haryana. Her friends and family claim that her expulsion was one of the reasons why Ruchika killed herself in December 1993. After being expelled by Sacred Heart, Ruchika used a private tutor and never went to any other school.

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As part of a probe to find out why Ruchika was expelled, the Sub Divisional Magistrate of Chandigarh, Prerna Puri, is at Ruchika's friend and the only eyewitness to the molestation, Aradhna's house, to get her version on Ruchika's expulsion.

Aradhana, who has been campaigning for justice in the case, had told NDTV that after Ruchika was molested, she was quiet and depressed in school and would often burst into tears in class. About the official reason given by the school for expelling Ruchika, Aradhana pointed out that Ruchika had been a student there for several years and the school could have warned her family instead of expelling the teenager.

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Government officials from the Education Department had visited Sacred Heart Convent for the second day in a row on Thursday morning to scan the school's records. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in a Chandigarh court has asked for an inquiry into Ruchika's expulsion.

On Wednesday, Father Thomas Anchanikal had denied that Ruchika had been expelled under pressure from SPS Rathore, the policeman who molested her. After Ruchika complained against Rathore in 1990, a police inquiry found him guilty. But no action was taken against him. For the next three years, Rathore allegedly used his powerful position to harass Ruchika and her family. Her brother was implicated in cases of theft. Overwhelmed, Ruchika drank poison and committed suicide.

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Rathore was convicted 19 years after he molested Ruchika to six months in prison - a verdict that outraged India. The government is now working with Ruchika's family to examine whether Rathore can be charged with abetment of suicide, instead of molestation.