Ruchika case: Hearing on SPS Rathore's appeal next month

A court here today adjourned till April 15 the hearing on the appeal of former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore against his six month sentence in the Ruchika molestation case after his plea that his lawyer was still recovering from an assault on him here last month.

The court of additional district and session judge RS Attri ordered that the matter stands adjourned till the next date.

Accompanied by a Haryana Police cop, Rathore and his lawyer-wife Abha came for the hearing of the case.

Abha told the court that Rathore's counsel (N D Sharma) was still recovering from the assault on the former DGP outside the district courts here on February 8. 

Rathore was attacked by Utsav Sharma, a youth posing as a journalist and said to have a psychological disorder. He had stabbed the former DGP thrice in the face with a pocket knife outside the district court. The former DGP's lawyer had also sustained injuries in the attack and both had to be hospitalised.

Lawyer for the Ruchika family, Pankaj Bhardwaj and Anand Prakash, father of Aradhna, late Ruchika's friend and sole witness in the molestation incident, were also present in the court today.

Rathore had filed an appeal against the sentence awarded to him on December 21 last year by CBI Judge J S Sidhu who had held the former IPS officer guilty of molesting budding tennis player Ruchika at Panchkula on August 12, 1990. 

Rathore was granted bail by the ADSJ's court after his appeal against the sentence was admitted on January 13.