The CBI court had on December 21 granted bail to the 67-year-old SPS Rathore to allow him to file his appeal against its judgment.
A local court today granted bail to tainted Haryana DGP SPS Rathore on his petition against a CBI special court's verdict sentencing him to six months' imprisonment and a fine of Rs1,000 for molesting Ruchika Girhotra 19 years ago.
The CBI trial court here had on December 21 granted bail to the 68-year-old Rathore to allow him to file his appeal against its judgment.
Additional district and sessions judge RS Attri granted the former IPS officer bail till February 8 when his appeal against the trial court order will come up for hearing.
The judge of the apellant court in his order said that final arguments in the case will be taken up continuously for three days beginning February 8 next. In his order, Attri directed Rathore not to leave the country and submit his passport to the court within a week and furnish a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh.
The District and Sessions Court had yesterday admitted his appeal and directed listing of the case before Attri.
The judge also issued notice to CBI to file its reply on the appeal by the next date of hearing. Rathore, attired in a brown suit and a white shirt and his lawyer-wife Abha were present in the court.
Seeking at least three days' adjournment in the case to file their reply, the CBI counsel also informed the court that the investigating agency's Directorate in Delhi has decided to seek enhancement of the sentence handed down to Rathore during the next couple of weeks.
The judge then gave time till the next date of hearing to the CBI counsel to file the agency's petition on enhancement of the sentence.
Pankaj Bhardwaj, the counsel for Madhu Parkash, the complainant and mother of Aradhana, the sole witness to the molestation of Ruchika, also submitted before the court that they would be filing a petition to demand an increase in the sentence.
Opposing Rathore's bail plea, Bhardwaj said there were special reasons for this in the light of the facts that have come to the surface recently.
"A recent inquiry report has indicted Sacred Heart School which expelled Ruchika for extraneous reasons, recent arrest of Gajinder, absconding kingpin of an auto lifter gang in early 1990s who had earlier claimed that Ruchika's brother Ashu was also involved but was later acquitted by the Courts and sudden appearance of a woman named Veena (whom Abha
Rathore has alleged is Ruchika father SC Girhotra's second wife).
Truth has been under the wraps at his (Rathore's) behest and once again he may influence the witnesses," Bhardwaj said.
Seeking bail for her husband, Abha Rathore submitted before the Court that his age factor, his being a heart and diabetes patient and having undergone a heart surgery two years back and the fact that he had not misused earlier bail granted to him should be taken into account.
The former DGP was convicted last month by Special CBI magistrate JS Sidhu who found him guilty under section 354 of the IPC with having molested 14-year-old Ruchika on August 12, 1990.
Rathore, who retired in 2002, was the IGP when he molested the girl, a budding tennis player, who committed suicide in December 1993.
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