Hyderabad, February 21: Even after a relentless fight for nearly 19 years, SC Subhash Girhothra and Anand Prakash have not lost their hope that justice will be done to Ruchika who committed suicide after being allegedly molested by the former DGP of Haryana SS Rathore.
They still hope the CBI investigation will come out with something and they want to wait and watch the developments before jumping into conclusions.
Subhash, father of Ruchika, and his friend Anand, father of Aradhana who was the eyewitness to the brutal incident, are touring the country to garner public support to pressurise the government to take action against the tainted DGP.
He lamented that about 400 hearings were held in the case during the past 19 years only to question four witnesses and go through a few other supporting documents and evidences, enabling the accused to evade punishment.
“When the incident occurred, the media was not so proactive and people had little awareness about our system which has several loopholes enabling the accused to escape from punishment and make mockery of the system. Now, we want to garner support and help such victims to ensure punishment to the accused’’ said Subash. He felt that the CBI will complete its investigation and the Courts deliver verdict faster owing to public pressure. He wanted that the system should be strengthened such that no powerful person should dare to put his/her hands on a weak person and every criminal (however powerful he may be) should be proved guilty and punished.
Anand Prakash stated that they want to help and guide victims who underwent similar experiences and were denied justice. They are trying to build a network of non-governmental organisations to fight for justice on behalf of the victims. “We made certain mistakes that were used by the accused to make mockery of the system and we do not want any chance to other such criminals.
We will guide the victims for justice,’’ he said.
According to Anand, a group of lawyers, NGOs and mediapersons are joining hands to build this network across the country. Anand’s daughter and eyewitness to the inhuman incident of Ruchika, Aradhana, has already launched a website `www.justice4ruchika.com’ to build the network and help the needy.
An NGO, UMO Society, in the Old City of Hyderabad will work in this regard where its president Mukarram Amber Khani is garnering support from all quarters including lawyers.
–Agencies