Wino Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 What an outrage. The top policeman in the state, is found guilty of molesting a 14 year old girl and receives a $20 fine and six month jail term but is immediately granted bail. NEW DELHI (AFP) – A Kafkaesque tale of crime, suicide and corruption has appalled India over the last week, causing outrage even in a country long accustomed to the transgressions of those in power. The sexual assault of Ruchika Girhotra, 14 at the time of the crime, by a police officer in 1990 has shone a light on an alleged nexus of corruption with tentacles that reach through the police, bureaucracy and political class. What has disgusted observers, and led to a concerted "Justice for Ruchika" campaign, is the alleged scale of the abuse of power that is shaking already rock-bottom confidence in public institutions. "Police have become terrorists of the worst kind but everyone has been collaborating or colluding," Supreme Court lawyer and women's advocate Rani Jethmalani told AFP. "The institutions which are responsible for responding have failed the victim and family, including the judiciary." Nineteen years ago, S.P.S. Rathore, a senior police official in the northern state of Haryana, molested Girhotra after arranging to meet her at the local lawn tennis club, of which he was president. Girhotra, a middle class girl and promising tennis player, dared to lodge a complaint against Rathore, now 67, setting off a chain of events which are only now coming to light. An internal police probe in 1990 into the assault recommended a case be filed but Rathore was promoted and his influence grew further when he was later named as the top police officer for the entire state. Girhotra meanwhile was expelled from her prestigious private school within months of the attack. The expulsion, the family claims, was part of a campaign of intimidation and harassment designed to force the family to drop their complaint and prevent any prosecution of the policeman. Girhotra's brother Ashu was accused of theft and then abused in jail at Rathore's orders, according to the family. Rathore's wife Abha, who is also his legal counsel, has blamed the media for creating "hype" and accused Girhotra's families of "forging the facts," according to the Press Trust of India news agency. Tormented by the stress she believed she had inflicted upon her family, Ruchika finally poisoned herself in 1993 at the age of 17. Her brother was released from jail soon after she died. Nineteen years after the original assault -- a long time even by Indian standards -- a court last week found Rathore guilty of molestation and sentenced him to six months in jail and a 1,000-rupee (20-dollar) fine. Rathore emerged from the courtroom grinning, while Girhotra's supporters were outraged that he had received such a light sentence and was immediately granted bail. They had wanted him charged with abetting the suicide of a minor, which carries a maximum sentence of the death penalty or life imprisonment. "Any abuse of personal authority must be prevented at any cost," India's anti-corruption watchdog, chief vigilance commissioner Pratyush Sinha, said this week. "This is a very bad example of what somebody can do with the system and get away," Sinha told the CNN-IBN news network. Rathore is alleged to have used his clout as a senior police officer to bribe his way out of multiple investigations. Girhotra's father also alleges that the results of the post mortem examination and inquest were doctored by the police. R. Singh, a former official with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's top police body, told a newspaper that Rathore in 1998 offered him help with building a new house in return for a "favourable report". The family of Girhotra's best friend Aradhna Gupta, who witnessed the assault and has waged the legal battle on her behalf since, also say they were subjected to intimidation aimed at forcing them to back down. Aradhna's father Anand Prakash, an engineer with a state agency, was repeatedly told to drop the case or face consequences. He was eventually fired. Aided by blanket media coverage in India's aggressive newspapers and television channels, a fightback is beginning. Haryana police on Tuesday registered two new cases against Rathore for harassing the Girhotra family and a petition has also been filed against Ruchika's school for throwing her out. Many are now clamouring for a new trial and federal Law Minister Veerappa Moily has said the government is reviewing legislation to fast-track sex assault cases. Politicians who knew of the case against Rathore now stand accused of doing nothing to prevent his rise to the top of the police force. "This particular case is tragically revealing the sickness in the entire system," Pinki Virani, an author and journalist who has written on sexual assault against women, commented to AFP. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091231/wl_sthasia_afp/indiacrimesexcorruptionpolice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rucus7 Posted January 1, 2010 Report Share Posted January 1, 2010 It is good to see this type of legal case get international media. Change may be brought about by national embarrassment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvdkeyes Posted January 1, 2010 Report Share Posted January 1, 2010 I am not so sure that kind of guy gets embarrassed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted January 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2010 This guy is probably a psychopath. Psychopaths or sociopaths are people without a conscience. It is all about "me" and he could care less what other people think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Chang Posted January 14, 2010 Report Share Posted January 14, 2010 Rathore emerged from the courtroom grinning What a creep this Ratwhore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaimo Posted January 15, 2010 Report Share Posted January 15, 2010 While this story is sickening, I'm sure it is only one example of a great many similar such things that go on not only in India, but in third world countries throughout the world. If you have never seen it, I recommend seeing a Patrick Swayze movie called City of Joy. The story takes place in India and shows just what this kind of corruption is like. It's hard to watch this movie without getting angry. It is quite realistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted January 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 Not only in the third world, but I would guess this happens in the first and second world, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Chang Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 In the first world corruption is more sophisticated and the Average Joe tolerates it cause he's thrown enough bones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvdkeyes Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 I have often heard of Third World countries, but never hear any country referred to as First World or Second World. Strange! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Chang Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 I always wondered what a second world country was and someone told me it was the Communist block, not sure about that though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvdkeyes Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Since there is no communist block anymore, does that mean there are no Second World Countries? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 I always understood "third-world" countries are undeveloped countries whereas "first-world" countries were the advanced countries (economically, anyway) in the world. While it may be logical to have "second-world" countries, I've never heard that term before. Not sure of the derivation of the term, but throughout my lifetime I've heard the term "third-rate" to describe something that's not very modern, cheap, or lowbrow. So, in general, I don't think the term "third-rate" or, for that matter, "third-world" generally means it's actually "third" but, rather, backward or not very developed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Chang Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 From Wikipedia: The Second World is a term that was used to describe the communist countries of the Soviet Union and its allies during the Cold War.[1] The Second World was basically the Communist World. The Second World was one of the three regions the world was divided into alongside the First World and the Third World. The Second World included the Soviet Union and all the other communist countries in Eastern Europe. The Second World countries in Europe were also known as the Eastern Bloc. The term Second World did not have a precise definition. There was argument and disagreement as to whether or not communist countries that were not part of Eastern Europe such as China, Vietnam, Cuba, and North Korea were part of the Second World. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted January 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 Bob stated, "Not sure of the derivation of the term, but throughout my lifetime I've heard the term "third-rate" to describe something that's not very modern, cheap, or lowbrow." The same can be said of "second-rate." I am not sure of the derivation of "second-rate" but imagine it is because it is not number one. With the globalization of the world, it seems we will be split in two, the haves and the have-nots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Chang Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 The have nots are such as most of Africa are in big trouble but the tweeners such as the ASEAN countries are on the rise and catcvhing up fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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