Rathore attacker sent to police custody

Bombay News.Net
Tuesday 9th February, 2010

A court here Tuesday sent Utsav Sharma, who attacked former Haryana police chief S.P.S. Rathore, convicted for molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra, to a day's police remand.

Sharma's parents were also present in the court of civil judge Paramjit Kaur, when she sent him in police custody. His parents, however, refused to talk to mediapersons.

Sharma, wielding a pen-knife, thrice stabbed in the face Rathore, convicted of molesting Ruchika in 1990, outside the district court complex Monday.

Immediately after the attack, Chandigarh police arrested 29-year-old Sharma, who was posing as a freelance journalist.

He belongs to Varanasi and is pursuing a film production course at the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad.

He was booked under Sections 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Police said that Sharma is medically unstable and is undergoing treatment for a psychological problem.

'He is not at all repentant over his attack,' said a police official.

Rathore's counsel Narayan Dutt Sharma from Jaipur was also injured in the attack.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court held Rathore guilty in December last year of molesting 15-year-old Ruchika in Panchkula town in August 1990. She committed suicide three years later.

Rathore was sentenced to six months' rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs.1,000 in the 19-year-old molestation case. Rathore was granted bail immediately after his conviction.

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