Centre looks at way to strip Rathore of his Police Medal

The Centre is actively exploring whether it can strip former Haryana DGP Shambhu Pratap Singh Rathore of his 1985 Police Medal for Meritorious Services and has decided to ask the CBI to start groundwork for an appeal for an enhanced sentence.

It has also been decided to serve a show-cause notice to the disgraced officer asking why he should get full pension after being convicted by the CBI court for the molestation of Ruchika Girhotra this week.

Girhotra committed suicide in 1993, three years after she filed the complaint, three years during which her Chandigarh school, Sacred Heart Convent, expelled her and a string of fake auto-theft cases were slapped against her brother.

While the Home Ministry is examining whether action against Rathore is time-barred in any way — the officer retired in 2002 — sources told The Indian Express that the record of the 1965 batch IPS officer revealed that not only was Rathore promoted to DGP by the Om Prakash Chautala government in 2000, his name was even recommended for a President’s Police Medal For Distinguished Service by the same government in November 1999.

Records show that the proposal gave Rathore a clean chit on integrity and concealed the fact that he had a case of molestation against him. It was only when the Intelligence Bureau told the Home Ministry that Rathore was an accused in the Ruchika molestation case that the recommendation was rejected. The Centre is looking at probing how and why Rathore’s recommendation was cleared and who were behind the attempted cover-up.

Meanwhile, citing Rathore’s conviction this week, the Centre is working to start the process of stripping the officer of the only Police Medal he was awarded on August 15, 1985. Simultaneously, the Home Ministry is also expected to show-cause Rathore — who retired in 2002 — on why his pension should not be cut for bringing his service into disrepute. It has also been decided that the CBI will file an appeal in the higher court for a stringent sentence as the punishment for molestation is upto two years.