Pnchkula, January 09: Disgraced former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore faces the possibility of arrest with a court in Panchkula on Friday rejecting anticipatory bail pleas moved by him following registration of two fresh FIRs levelling serious criminal charges against him in the Ruchika molestation case.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jindal said in court that he was dismissing two anticipatory bail pleas each of Rathore and his co-accused ASI Sewa Singh relating to the two new cases registered against them on 29th December.
The judge had on Thursday reserved his order on the anticipatory bail pleas for Friday. Details of the verdict were not immediately available. 67-year-old Rathore and his lawyer- wife Abha, who had argued his case, were not present in court when the order was pronounced.
A sessions court, while hearing Rathore’s anticipatory bail applications on January one, had granted him interim bail till 7th January. With the rejection of his anticipatory bail petitions, the retired IPS officer is without any cover of a court order to prevent arrest.
The Haryana Government has already recommended to the Centre that CBI should be handed over the investigation into the fresh charges against Rathore and others including attempt to murder, wrongful confinement and doctoring of post-mortem report of the 14-year-old girl.
The FIRs were based on complaints filed by Ruchika’s father Subhash Chander Girhotra and his son Ashu.
Meanwhile, S S Kapoor, chief of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Haryana Government to probe the case, said that they would not like to pre-empt a CBI probe by arresting the accused at this stage.
—Agencies