Chandigarh: CBI ,on Monday, strongly opposed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court the bail plea of former
Haryana DGP SPS Rathore, sentenced to an 18-month jail term in the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case, and submitted that he must undergo "some part of marginal sentence" awarded to him.
"Rathore must spend some part of marginal sentence in jail like one-third of total punishment given to him," CBI counsel Anmol Rattan Sidhu told the court.
"It was a two-decade-long battle...at least Rathore must spend one-third of the sentence in jail," he pleaded.
14-year-old Ruchika, a budding tennis player, had committed suicide three years after being molested by Rathore on August 12, 1990. A sessions court had on May 25 enhanced Rathore's jail term from six months to one-and-a-half years while allowing the plea of CBI and the Girhotra family.
Arguing the bail petition of 68-year-old Rathore, his lawyer-wife Abha contended that the "whole case is based on forged documents."
She alleged that all the signatures of Ruchika on documents presented before the prosecuting agency during trial were "forged."
She contended that Anand Parkash, whose wife Madhu Parkash was the complainant in the case and S C Girhotra, father of Ruchika, had joined the case later.
She claimed, "All wrongs were used to get the sentence enhanced...Rathore never violated the term of condition and bail bond during the course of hearing in the case."
"He (Rathore) has been never held guilty of mis-conduct throughout his life...he is a honest man with high moral character with exceptional record of integrity," she said.
"I have suffered the travesty of justice," Abha contended while pleading that Rathore may be released on bail.
The single vacation judge, Justice Ajay Tewari after hearing the arguments for about an hour in the jam-packed court room on the revision and bail petitions of Rathore deferred the hearing till tomorrow.
During arguments, the CBI counsel pleaded that it will take another day to file its reply on the revision petition and pleaded to the court to fix another date for the hearing.
Sidhu said that the CBI had prepared a lengthy reply to the petition and that it would be sent by a special messenger to the court