The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday deferred till Friday pronouncement of its verdict on the bail plea of disgraced former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore, who is undergoing an 18-month prison term for molesting 14-year-old Ruchika Girhotra 20 years ago.
Vacation Judge Justice Ajay Tewari, who had reserved his order for Thursday, has deferred his verdict till Friday, the court's reader said.
No reason was given for postponment of the verdict by another day. Justice Tewari before going for tea break this morning had said, "I am not sure I will pronounce the orders today. I will do my best."
68-year-old Rathore's wife counsel Abha, her sister Neerja, CBI counsel Ajay Kaushik, Anand Parkash and Madhu Parkash (parents of Aradhana, the complainant in the case), S C Girhotra, Ruchika's father and a battery of mediapersons were among those who were waiting in the court since morning for the judgement.
Girhotra family's counsel Pankaj Bhardwaj was not present in the court. The Amritsar police had visited his residence on Tuesday to arrest him in connection with a cheating case registered in 2007 in Amritsar.
Rathore's lawyer wife Abha Rathore had filed the revision petition on his behalf in the HC on May 26 seeking bail, a day after he was sentenced and lodged in the high-security Burail jail in Chandigarh.
Ruchika, a budding tennis player, had committed suicide three years after being molested by Rathore on August 12, 1990. A session's court had on May 25 enhanced Rathore's jail term from six months to one-and-a-half years while allowing the pleas of CBI and the Girhotra family.
