Ruchika case: Shimla-Chandigarh Diocese organises prayer meet

The Shimla-Chandigarh Diocese which runs the Sacred Heart school, attended by Ruchika Girhotra and indicted by a magisterial probe, today organised a prayer meet to express solidarity with the school and its lady principal.

Spokesperson for Shimla-Chandigarh diocese, Father Thomas Anchanikal, claimed that the principal and the management of the school are innocent. "How can they blame us," he told reporters.

The prayer service was held at Christ the King Cathedral, to express solidarity with Sister Sebastina, who was the school's principal in September 1990 when Ruchika was expelled, shortly after she was molested by former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore.

However, no one from the Ruchika Girhotra family was present at the meet.

Bishops, priests and students, who attended the meet, claimed the school's name was being "unnecessarily dragged into the controversy".

Prayers were also offered to Ruchika, who committed suicide three years after her molestation.

On January 7, a magisterial probe of the Chandigarh administration had indicted the school for taking "wrong and malafide" action in expelling Ruchika, with the probe report also pointing that "there was an external influence in the action against Ruchika, who had been singled out".