Instances of a young girl becoming a victim of rape, and then, being unable to bear the shame and humiliation, committing suicide, are not uncommon in India. That girls from poor, disadvantaged families often fall victim to the lust of the rich and the powerful is also not unheard of. That the wheels of justice are often obstructed by those who have the resources and the required lack of scruples is only too well known.

Why, then, the suicide by a 14-year-old girl who was a victim of a molestation attempt, has moved millions to the core? That too, when the molester has been convicted, and sentenced to six months in prison.

Well, to understand that, first of all, here is a quick recap of the story.

Had she survived the trauma, had she been stronger, born with a thicker skin or was a cool, calculating, scheming so-and-so, she would have been a full-grown woman of 24. She would, by now, have voted in three elections, may have even raised a family of her own. But she chose to complain when she felt humiliated, and paid for it. What lesson does her fate hold out for other young women in our schools and colleges, work-places, playgrounds? Shut up and suffer silently if some old uncleji feels you up? Particularly if he happens to be powerful, even more so if he happens to be a cop? And mind you, this did not happen in some impenetrable political jungle of western Bihar. This happened in an upper middle class suburb, the kind of place people like us inhabit.  

(From Shekhar Gupta's National Interest column in Indian Express, on December 2, 2000)

In which civilised society would you expect as your DGP a man accused of molesting a 14-year-old, whose brother’s life was devastated with trumped up cases, whose father went into hiding and who, eventually, committed suicide? Which parent, and which child, will feel safe in that state any more? What view will that state’s police sub-inspectors, station house officers take of all the reforms the courts and the human rights bodies have brought about in the police’s treatment of women? As such it is not a state known to possess the most polite policemen in the country. Now, when they see their government toss aside the National Human Rights Commission’s strong suggestions to remove the DGP or the Central Vigilance Commission’s advice to do so, they will draw obvious inferences.  

The Roll Call of the Silent

During the years of militancy, Punjab was littered all over with tales of how top Punjab Police officers down to middle ranking DSPs and SHOs led an assault on the Sikh Nation at the instance of the entrenched powers which wanted to teach a lesson to those leading the aspirational struggle.

Properties of many were usurped by police officers, so many youth were killed in fake police encounters, many women family members were molested and raped in order to instil fear and force them to reveal the whereabouts of the 'boys', but the Indian Civil society's voice, it if itexisted at all, was too feeble to be heard.

The entire Sikh Nation knows how the women family members of S. Gian Singh Punia, who deceased recently, were harassed. When the then Punjab Governor Varinder Verma issued the statement that no women will be hauled to police thanas, the sister-in-law (brother’s wife) of S. Punia was being tortured in Landa Kothi in Sangrur. S. Punia’s wife Sardarni Gurdev Kaur was also kept in illegal confinement by the Jalandhar Police for three months. She was frequently tortured; not allowed to sleep and made to undergo much inhuman treatment.

This is the problem with middle class Indian sensibility; it falls silent all too often when the culprits also belong to the middle class. It is not very difficult to understand why in a city like Chandigarh where the chatterati is always in large numbers, someone like the police officer SPS Rathore was able to get away so lightly with a smirk on his face.

Everyone who knew what was happening when Ruchika was expelled from her school is guilty of not shouting. Every parent of every child who studied with her and knew what was happening is guilty. Everyone who has ever invited Rathore to his or her home for a cup of tea is guilty of supping with the Satan. Devilish tendencies feed on the silence of the good. All that is necessary for the evil people to flourish and do more evil is for the good to remain silent and do nothing.

No wonder, when the Ruchika episode exploded in the face of this civil society after a court let Rathore off so easily by giving him only six months in jail and a fine of mere Rs 1000, there were many shamed faces. From Sacred Heart Convent School in Sector 26 that dismissed Ruchika Girhotra after she complained that ex-Haryana DGP S P S Rathore had molested her to politicians and officers who scripted her and her family’s nightmare that followed, all fumbled for answers.

The school which dismissed her after she had studied there for more than 10 years simply with an excuse that she had not deposited her fee on time has no face. Its alumni are ashamed at what the school authorities did. One hopes that everyone in Ruchika's class now comes back to the school, insists on sitting on the same seats, and makes it clear that there is but one student less. A student who shamed the system, a student who jolted the conscience of civil society.

Now the Chandigarh Administration has ordered an inquiry into expulsion of Ruchika by the school, but the questions will remain as to why the Chandigarh Administration sat on the matter for two decades? Why the parents of other children did not demand such an action earlier? Did they consider their daughters to be safe after what happened to Ruchika? Does the school regret what it did, adding to the victim’s trauma?

On September 9, 1990, the day the then Director General of Police R R Singh indicted Rathore of misconduct, the state was headed by “dummy” Chief Minister Master Hukum Singh, a frontman for Om Parkash Chautala. Sampat Singh was then state Home Minister. “We knocked on his doors several times, sent him copies of our complaint but there was no action,” said Anand Prakash, who fought Ruchika’s case for 19 years. “The entire establishment shamelessly protected Rathore who enjoyed a good rapport with the then political and bureaucratic bosses.”

Now, Sampat Singh says it was not in his competence to take action against an IPS officer. Then Home Secretary J K Duggal said, “We examined the complaint. DGP R R Singh submitted his report indicting the officer. We did our job by forwarding the complaint to the then Home Minister (Sampat Singh) and it was up to him to take action.”

Everyone is good at washing off his hands. Chautala who was Chief Minister when the CBI filed the chargesheet against Rathore said he acted in time by sending him on leave, but that is exactly what had helped save Rathore. “Sending him on leave was as good as saving him,” said Prakash. “Why wasn’t he suspended when the CBI chargesheeted him of molestation?” It took the Chautala Government more than two weeks — after the chargesheet — to send Rathore on leave without any action.

Chautala accused other CMs of protecting Rathore. The incident happened when Hukum Singh ran the government; then the state was headed by former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. It was kept under wraps even during the tenure of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal. “They are the real culprits. No action against Rathore was taken during the Bhajan Lal regime and he even got promoted in the tenure of Bansi Lal,” Prakash said.

However, Rathore remained DGP after Chautala toppled the Bansi Lal Government. Former Chief Secretary M C Gupta even failed to recall having dealt with the file during his tenure. SO much fopr sensitisation of bureaucrats.

Former Principal Secretary L M Jain, whom Prakash accuses of shielding Rathore, said: “I have always tried to ensure that the guilty is given his due. We took a stand after a PIL was filed that action should be taken against the accused.” However, there is no one to explain why the officers agreed with the decision not to take any action against Rathore.

Ruchika's family files complaints against Rathore

Panchkula: The father and brother of Ruchika Girhotra, who was molested by former Haryana director general of police SPS Rathore, have demanded registration of fresh FIRs against the police officer and others in connection with the post mortem proceedings and booking of her brother in false cases.

Subash Chander Girhotra and Ashu, father and brother of Ruchika, have submitted their complaints. The fact that these complaints came 16 years to the day Ruchika committed suicide made it all the more poignant. Their family lawyer Pankaj Bhardwaj accompanied Ruchika's classmate Aradhana's father Anand Parkash to the office of the SP in Panchkula. Ruchika consumed poison on December 28, 1993, and died the following day.

Ruchika's friend snubs Bitta, his "honoring business"
WSN Network 

PANCHKULA: Much beloved of the Indian establishment and a blue eyed boy of the intelligence agencies of New Delhi, Maninderjit Singh Bitta, was rebuffed solidly by the family of Ruchika Girhotra as well as by Aradhna and her father Anand Prakash when he landed up at their door to claim a pie of the publicity.

Bitta, known as a publicity seeker and someone whose links with the intelligence agencies are only too well known, claimed he wanted to honour Aradhna for fighting case against Rathore, but in a clear message to small timers self-serving crooks like him, Aradhana declined to accept a bravery award from Bitta though she did not refuse to meet Rukhsana, the woman who had gunned down a top militant in Kashmir.

Aradhana warned against turning the Ruchika episode into a publicity gimmick and said instead supporting the crusade for a harsher punishment for Rathore would be a humane gesture. Snubbing Bitta, she said she wants no part of this “honouring business” and said the matter should not to be trivialised.

She said there was a “long battle against what the DGP did to the family and such honours were not required”.

“We have not hung up our boots yet. Rathore needs to be punished for the atrocities he let loose on Ashu and the entire family. He was the one who drove Ruchika to take such an extreme step. He deserves a stricter punishment,” Aradhana said.

Sharing his daughter’s view, Anand Prakash said more was needed to be uncovered. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. We will bring out the way Rathore ruined the Girhtora family step-by-step. That will be our real victory,” he said and refused the honour offered by Bitta.

Bitta was left shamefaced and was made to return with egg on his face as those fighting for Ruchika seemed to be only too well aware of the kind of interests and lobbies that he represented. Bitta however seemed unable to learn from his humiliation and deduced that the case lingered on for so long because he was not part of the fight. That most who heard his words laughed at him seemed to have had no effect.

How Rathore got a CBI officer removed from case 

It is surprising that after so many years, it is rare for any of the Punjab Police officers involved in torturing and killing young Sikh boys and girls to come out in the open and state who it was who pressurized them into committing the heinous act. So it is all the more heartening that a former CBI joint director R M Singh has come out to satet that former Haryana DGP S P S Rathore, convicted for molesting Ruchika Girhotra, had not only tried to threaten her family into silence but also attempted to influence CBI’s investigation into the charges against him.

RM Singh has told the media that Rathore pressured him and even offered favours, and when this did not work, he got him removed from the case. RM Singh had recommended that Rathore be chargesheeted for abetment to suicide. RM Singh was a junior officer and so he had to take Rathore's calls but refused to buckle. Rathore at one stage even tried to bribe him, offering help in construction of the house.

Court too heaped shame, but system still helped Rathore

Chandigarh: Five years after Ruchika Girhotra’s brother Ashu, who was just 14 then, was slapped with charges of stealing a car, the Panchkula Chief Judicial Magistrate exonerated him in 1997, saying he had “no hesitation to pinpoint that nothing is on record to prima facie indict the accused” and that the disclosure statement made by the main accused, Gajinder Singh, was “just wastepaper”.

Gajinder Singh, a resident of Bihar, had been arrested by the Panchkula Police for a car theft and police claimed he had named Ashu and his friend Sandeep as his accomplices. Singh later absconded and has been named a proclaimed offender.

Ashu’s father Subhash Girhotra says, “The police never made Ashu meet Gajinder who later absconded. It all happened with the connivance of the local police. They wanted Gajinder to run away as they knew he would speak the truth and disclose how he was forced to implicate Ashu.”

Similarly, in two other cases of car theft, the court cleared Ashu saying, “not even an iota of evidence is there against the accused Ashu and Sandeep in this regard. As the car is recovered by the accused Gajinder Singh, so he alone can be held liable for theft.”

By the time this judgment came out, the police had slapped five other cases of car theft against Ashu. In his affidavit, Ashu says not only was he tortured, with Rathore allegedly being briefed of the ‘progress’, he was also paraded in his neighbourhood.

By this time, say neighbours, the jovial bright boy had turned into a recluse. Now a father of a 12-year-old daughter, Ashu keeps to himself mostly.

His father says they still get nightmares. “We wanted to run away from life because of what happened to us and because we got no help from any quarter.”

He adds: “The Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, wants copy of judgment before deciding further action, I have copies of all the judgments which absolved my son from the fake FIRs of auto theft. He should get those from me and do something about the boy whose prime was lost, wandering like a fugitive.”