Church for probe into reasons for Ruchika's school expulsion

NEW DELHI, Dec. 31, 2009, 12.00 Hrs (IANS):

The Catholic Church demanded a `thorough investigation' into `all circumstances' that led to molestation victim Ruchika Girhotra's expulsion from Sacred Heart School, Chandigarh 19 years ago.

Maintaining that the Church runs the schools `not for expulsion but for excellence', the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) said `all the circumstances should be thoroughly investigated before reaching on a conclusion' as the incident happened 19 years ago.

Ruchika was expelled from the school for unexplained reasons just a month after she was molested by former Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) S.P.S. Rathore Aug 12, 1990.

Ruchika, a budding tennis player, committed suicide three years after the incident.

The Chandigarh administration has already initiated a magisterial inquiry into the role of the leading girls' school for expelling Ruchika in September 1990.

The administration Tuesday seized records of Sacred Heart school and it was found that Sister Sebastina, the present principal of the school, was also the principal when Ruchika was expelled in 1990.

Said CBCI spokesman Rev. Babu Joseph: `All our schools have been trying to cater to the best interest of the students and their welfare. There can be some human errors due to variety of reasons. They are addressed at appropriate forums and times.'

At one stage the school had cited non-payment of monthly fees as a reason behind Ruchika's expulsion. Rathore had used this expulsion to counter the chargesheet against him by claiming that Ruchika had been expelled on `moral grounds'.

The priest said the overall track record of the Sacred Heart School shows that it is an outstanding educational institution in the city of Chandigarh.

`And it is unlikely that the school would have taken an action that goes contrary to the interest of the students and the Christian principle of charity,' Babu Joseph told IANS.

A special CBI court in Chandigarh had held Rathore guilty Dec 21 of molesting Ruchika in Panchkula town Aug 12, 1990 and sentenced him to a six-month prison term.