Chandigarh:
An abiding mystery in the two-decade-old Ruchika Girhotra story has been the role of a woman called Veena. The Rathores allege she was Ruchika's stepmother, the Girhotras and friends say she was but a housekeeper. Now, sources in the Haryana Police say the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has traced Veena.
(Read: Who is Veena Girhotra?)Sources say the police are questioning Veena, but have refused to reveal her current location as she has sought protection of her identity and address.
According to the sources, Veena told the SIT that she met Ruchika's father Subhash Girhotra at a Surajpur temple in 1989. Both had been widowed by then.
Subhash married her in November 1990, she said. That was three months after 14-year-old Ruchika was molested by top Haryana cop SPS Rathore. She said she had a cordial relationship with Ruchika and was at the hospital when the teenager died after drinking poison in December 1993.
When Ruchika died, Veena signed on the inquest report and sources said she told the SIT that she was under no pressure to sign. She also said that Ruchika's maternal grandfather and uncle were at the hospital when she died. Veena told the SIT that she parted ways with Girhotra in 1995.
The lawyer and wife of former Haryana DGP Rathore, has repeatedly suggested in court that Ruchika committed suicide because of her stepmother and not because she driven to it by the extreme harassment that the family was subjected to in the months after the molestation. But Ruchika's father, who had told the CBI court in 2005 that he had remarried, has now steadfastly denied that he ever married again.
The police team has also questioned some witnesses who were present at the hospital when Ruchika died.