Chandigarh: A disgraced former Haryana top cop SPS Rathore spent a night in jail after being sentenced to a year and a half for molesting 14-year-old Ruchika.
The court directed the jail superintendent to provide proper medical care to Rathore, as his lawyer and wife, Abha Rathore told the court that he was a heart patient and required care. She is expected to apply for bail on Wednesday.
On Tuesday evening she visited him in Burail jail in Chandigarh and brought him some clothes.
The former Haryana Director General of Police was sent to jail by a Sessions court, which enhanced his sentence from six months to one-and-a-half years in prison for molesting 14-year-old Ruchika Girhotra 20 years ago.
Pronouncing the verdict in a packed court room, Additional District and Sessions Judge Gurbir Singh dismissed the appeal filed by 68-year-old Rathore challenging the six-month jail term handed to him by a CBI court in December last year. (
Watch: Verdict restores people's faith in judiciary, says Aradhana)
The judge allowed the pleas of CBI and Ruchika's family for enhancement of his sentence. They had sought the maximum punishment of two years.
The court directed that Rathore be taken to the local Burial Jail immediately following dismissal of his appeal and enhancement of the sentence. It directed the jail superintendent to provide proper medical care to the former DGP, if required, following an application by his lawyer-wife Abha that he was a heart patient. The court also allowed Rathore's plea for getting himself examined at the cardiac care department of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh. The CBI then took him into custody.
After the sentencing, Rathore looked grim, his face sans its usual wide grin, but he told reporters, "I will keep smiling".
The former DGP was sentenced to six months' rigorous imprisonment on December 21 last year by CBI Judge J S Sidhu for molesting Ruchika, a budding tennis player, in Panchkula on August 12, 1990. Three years after the incident, Ruchika committed suicide. The family alleged that it faced extreme harassment at the behest of the powerful cop leading to the young girl killing herself in December 1993. The shattered family, once well-entrenched in Chandigarh, left the city. And Ruchika's closest friend Aradhana, along with her parents, waged a tireless battle for justice.
Rathore, meanwhile, continued to flourish and climb the police ranks and retired to settle to a genteel, comfortable existence. In posh Panchkula, where he had molested the teenager 20 years ago. Not very far from the jail he is in.
After almost 20 years, in December last, when the CBI court announced a six-month sentence, there was outrage in the country. Ruchika's family filed case of abetment to suicide against Rathore. The disgraced former cop was even stripped of his President's Police Medal.
After Tuesday's verdict, Ruchika's father SC Girhotra said this was just the first battle won in the war the family was waging. He said the family would continue to fight Rathore with the charge of abetting Ruchika's suicide. (
Watch: Ruchika's family vows to fight on)
While Rathore is almost certain to challenge the verdict, his troubles may have only just begun.
The CBI is currently investigating charges of attempt to murder and abetment to suicide against the former top cop. If found guilty, Rathore could face a jail term of upto 10 years.
Anand Prakash, the father of Aradhana, who had witnessed the molestation 20 years ago, welcomed the verdict and said this would send out the signal that the powerful were not above the law. Prakash and his family waged a long battle for justice for Ruchika. (
Read: Anand Prakash welcomes verdict in Ruchika case)
The lawyer representing Ruchika's family, Pankaj Bharadwaj, said it was a "historic order" and he was "satisfied with the sentence" and would bolster the faith of the common man in the system of justice.
Also See:India's Ruchika: Fight for justice