Ruchika's school deserves punishment

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

The news of Haryana DGP S P S Rathore getting a term of six months for molesting Ruchika Girhotra and leading her to suicide has shocked the nation. More shocking is the fact that Ruchika was rusticated from her school the Sacred Heart Convent School ostensibly because she didn't pay her school fees. The school authorities did not even give her and her family any notice before taking this step shattering an already demoralised girl.

This trauma was too much for Ruchika to bear who was already reliving the bad memories of molestation as her entire family was being harassed by the police. The reason she had dared to raise complaint against a top cop. A teenager who was a budding tennis player and might have earned laurels for state and the nation was poisoned to death by the society with her school playing a pivotal role.

The last thing a girl would have wanted was to be harassed by her own school. This finally led her to the extreme step in her life. A motherless child might have taken her teachers as her mother but what did these people do, dump her out of the school? This makes Ruchika's case even painful than others we have seen in the recent years. In most of those cases colleges and institutions have stood by the victim but that wasn't the case with Ruchika.

This needs to be investigated as to why no notice was issued to her before she was rusticated from the school without being served any notice. Was there Rathore behind all these? A person who could get Ruchika's bother arrested on false charges and harassed her entire family might have easily lobbied with people to get her rusticated from the school. A molester who can become a DGP can do anything in this country.

Now in case the school authorities are found guilty what will their punishment be? 6 days or two weeks of imprisonment? That should be ok if the molester who leads a girl to commit suicide is handed six months imprisonment on top of which he gets a bail in six minutes. Justice delayed is justice denied, where was the justice delivered in any case? Wonder if the mediaeval ways of punishment in Gulf countries is better than our great judiciary. We believe in killing crime and not criminals but the truth is we do neither.