Molestation case:
SC for CBI probe against DGP
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 17 — The Supreme Court has upheld a judgement passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordering investigation by the CBI into the alleged molestation of a girl by the Director-General of Haryana Police, Mr S.P.S. Rathore.

A Division Bench of the apex court comprising Mr Justice G.B. Pattanaik and Mr Justice M.B. Shah rejected an appeal filed by Mr Rathore against the order of Mr Justice R.L. Anand of the High Court on December 14. Copies of the Supreme Court orders were available here only today.

The High Court orders had come in a criminal writ petition filed by Mrs Madhu, mother of a friend of Ruchika, who was allegedly molested by Mr Rathore. Ruchika is no longer alive.

Mrs Madhu had alleged that no investigation had taken place into charges against Mr Rathore because he was a high-ranking police officer, though the incident had taken place in 1990. The writ petition was filed in 1997.

The apex court noted that it transpired from the records that an inquiry had been conducted by another police officer, who, prima facie, was satisfied about the truth of the allegations, and had submitted the report to the government.

But the government ultimately considered the report and was satisfied that no case for initiating even a departmental proceedings had been made out. The government did not accept the said report of inquiry made by the then Director-General of Police, Mr R.R. Singh.

The High Court, after considering the material considered by Mr R.R. Singh came to the conclusion that a case for the registration of a criminal case had been made out. Hence the court directed that the case would be investigated by a CBI officer not below the rank of a DIG.

The apex court noted that the reason, which prompted the High Court to direct the CBI to investigate the case was that Mr Rathore, against whom the allegations had been made, was at present the DGP. The court also noted that the DGP had also suggested that it would be proper that the investigations should be conducted not by the police authorities of the state but by an independent authority like the CBI.

Mr U.U. Lalit, who appeared for Mr Rathore, raised several contentious issues, including the issue of locus standi of Mrs Madhu in filing the writ petition. The Judges said they were not examining the merits of those issues. they also said that in their view the direction to hold an investigation could not be held to be either without jurisdiction or arbitrary.

Taking note of the contention made by Mr Lalit that the observations made by the High Court might weigh with the investigating agency or even the trial Magistrate, the apex court said after examining the High Court judgement it had no hesitation to come to the conclusion that any observation made by the High Court as regards the merits of the allegations were merely tentative and should not bound either the investigating agency or a Magistrate. “Needless to mention that the investigating agency shall investigate into the matter and come to its own conclusion on the basis of material available in the course of investigation”.

The court said the appellant (Mr Rathore) should not be apprehensive of any bias by the investigating agency.

Noting that the incident took place in 1990, the court directed the investigating agency to conclude the investigation as expeditiously as possible.