‘He only acted rude, did not molest her’

Limiting the meaning of abhadra vyavahaar ( indecent behaviour) to "rude" behaviour, Abha Rathore today tried to convince the court that her husband S P S Rathore had only behaved rudely with Ruchika Girhotra and not tried to molest her.

Abha tried to defend the former Haryana Director General of Police (DGP), who is at present lodged in Burail jail, by reading out a statement by S C Girhotra, Ruchika's father, to the Haryana Police in 1990 when she was molested.

The top cop's counsel made an attempt to state that the term 'abhadra vyavahaar' used by Girhotra in his statement did not imply that Ruchika was molested by Rathore.

Giving justification for the "rude behaviour", his lawyer wife averred that since Ruchika was undisciplined, Rathore had been rude to her.

Showing little conviction in the argument, Justice Jitendra Chauhan observed that "the expression has many connotations" and cannot be confined to rude behaviour. The arguments were raised on Thursday during the hearing of a revision petition filed by Rathore challenging his enhanced sentence.

Though Abha demanded two days for regular hearing of the petition, Justice Chauhan made it clear that only one hour will be devoted to Rathore's case while adding that other cases cannot be ignored.

During presentation of arguments, Abha Rathore again took a dig at Anand Prakash, complainant Madhu's husband.

Terming Anand as the "main conspirator" in the case, Abha contended that the case against Rathore is nothing but a "conspiracy". Raising eyebrows over the bonafides of eyewitnesses in the case, Abha kept addressing Aradhana, Ruchika's friend, and Girhotra as "alleged" witnesses.

Abha also accused the then financial commissioner of Haryana to be part of the conspiracy hatched against Rathore. She argued that "inimical" people had got together against a "straight forward and honest police officer".

... contd.

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