No evidence to back Girhotra family's charges against Rathore

The CBI gave a point-by-point rebuttal to all eight charges made by Ruchika's father S C Girhotra and four allegations made by her brother Ashu who claimed that he was taken home in a semi-nude condition and that false cases were slapped on him about auto-theft at behest of Rathore.

As the CBI filed the closure report saying the allegations levelled by the duo against Rathore were unfounded and baseless, the court issued notices to Girhotra and Ashu.
In the first case, the father had alleged in his complaint to the police that after his daughter consumed poison on December 28, 1993, three years after the 14-year-old was molested, he was forced by Rathore, who was the then Inspector General (Telecom), to take her to PGI hospital at Chandigarh and during the postmortem, the magistrate was not called by the police.

In its report, the CBI claimed that the allegations could not be substantiated "as per the documentary evidence and oral testimony of witnesses".

"The probe disclosed that Ruchika had consumed poison in the morning of December 28, 1993 at her home in Panchkula and that she was taken to PGI hospital by Girhotra and his second wife Veena of their own," the closure report said.

The CBI claimed that the victim was first taken to a nursing home at Sector-8 in Panchkula by her father and stepmother from where she was referred to PGI as the general hospital in the area was undergoing construction.

At PGI Chandigarh, the name of Ruchika was mentioned as "Ruby" by her father and during investigation, the CBI claimed that this was her nickname -- a finding which has also been corroborated by other family members.

Girhotra had claimed in his complaint against Rathore, whose sentenced was enhanced from six months to 18 months by a Sessions Court on May 25, 2010 for molesting Ruchika, that her body was not released by the hospital authority and that he spent the whole night outside mortuary.

However, the CBI recorded statements of some of relatives of Girhotra who said that the father returned home after the doctors informed him about the death and that the body would be released the next day only.

On the alleged false cases against Ashu, the CBI claimed to have found during investigation that his name had been revealed by one of his alleged accomplices -- Sandeep Verma