" Media professional Biju Mathew's Gmail status message on Wednesday voiced the angst of Delhiites, shaken by the feeble sentence handed out to former Haryana police chief SPS Rathore in the Ruchika Girhotra case. Ruchika, then 14-year-old, was molested by the accused and committed suicide three years later due to pressure and constant harassment.
On Thursday, people from all age groups also came together for a candlelight vigil at Jantar Mantar to demand the reopening of the case. Just like in the Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo cases, social networking sites have emerged as a frontrunner medium to voice the anger of the disillusioned Indians in this case too.
Says Aditya Raj Kaul, who spearheaded the Priyadarshini case and also supported the candlelight vigil on Thursday, "There were nearly 200 people -from Delhi's school and college students to senior citizens - everyone was disturbed and disillusioned by the justice that is too little and too late. Why do we have to come out on roads every time we have to make ourselves heard?" Communities have sprung up on Facebook and Orkut asking for justice to prevail.
'Justice for Ruchika', a Facebook community with the number of members increasing every day, asks 'the case be re-opened and criminals like SPS Rathore be more severely punished'.
Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/32/20091225/1072/ten-ruchika-finds-a-voice-online.html
Chidambaram meets father, seeks 'documents'
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram met Ruchika's father S C Girhotra and his lawyer Pankaj Bhardwaj at his North Block office for an hour on Wednesday. Chidambaram heard the full sequence of events in the case, and asked for certain documents. Anand Prakash, father of Ruchika's friend Aradhana, was also present.
Speaking afterward, Bhardwaj described the meeting as an "exchange of ideas", and said the Home Minister had "essentially" wanted to know about "some of the documents" relating to the case.
"The Home Minister has heard us and we have narrated to him our side of the case. I narrated to him the entire sequence of events from 1990 till date. We have given him some documents relating to the case. We discussed what best remedy could be there," Bhardwaj said.
He is likely to hand over some more documents on Thursday.
On the possibility of adding Section 306 of the IPC (abetment of suicide) to the charges against former Haryana DGP S P S Rathore, Bhardwaj said, "We have discussed this idea. We are still thinking about what is the best possible line of action on this."
There were "so many ways of reopening the matter with regard to Section 306", Bhardwaj said. He added that the Home Ministry has the "power to take up any matter", and can "verify and streamline the whole process".
Ruchika's father said the Minister had given them a "patient hearing", and had been "very sympathetic". Girhotra reiterated his demand that politicians and bureaucrats responsible for not registering cases against Rathore and for not taking action, should be booked. He also sought quick action on the two FIRs registered by the Haryana Police yesterday.
Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20091231/804/tnl-chidambaram-meets-father-seeks-docum.html
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