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Godhra assault: Victims ask HC to initiate suo motu action against guilty (Jan 6, 2010, Indian Express)

A group of Muslim women from Godhra have written to the Chief
Justice of Gujarat High Court with a request to initiate suo motu
action over the alleged physical and sexual assault on them by the
Godhra town police personnel. The police have termed the allegations
baseless. The alleged incident took place during a midnight combing
operation by the town police on December 19. The signatories include
six Muslim women, who claim to have been among the several beaten up
and sexually assaulted by the B-division Godhra town police, who raided
their homes that night. All are residents of Geni Palot and Hathila
Palot in Godhra.

They said in their request: "We are terribly
helpless and feel insecure in our locality despite being bonafide
citizens of India. Even at this moment, we live in our homes fearing
attack by the police – without any legitimate reason. We request you to
kindly initiate suo moto action so that those guilty of violating human
and natural laws are punished at the earliest." Sabera Hayat (40), told
The Indian Express that the police stormed their houses around 1 am
that night. "We were all were asleep, including my daughter Amina, who
came to stay with us for her first delivery. They pulled me by the hair
and beat me up. They also pounced on Amina, when she tried to
intervene. Even the newborn baby was injured on the leg when the police
beat up Amina. When I started screaming for help, they covered my mouth
and threatened to rape me," she said.

Farida Chimaji (27) said
she and her six-month-old daughter, Musfira, were injured in the police
assault. "We cannot even describe the napak (profane) gestures and
words they hurled at us," she said. Around midnight on December 19,
some 150 personnel from divisions A and B of the Godhra town police,
along with some from the district, carried out a combing operation in
the Muslim dominated Geni Palot and Hathila Palot. The police said it
was in the wake of a rioting and stone pelting incident, in which four
poliemen were injured.

"We had identified the accused during
the incident and undertook the combing operation to get them out from
their hideouts," said Sub-Inspector A V Parmar, the In-charge Inspector
of B Division Godhra town police station. He added: "Ten of the nearly
150 police personnel in the operation that night were women officers."
Godhra Superintendent of Police J R Mothalia said the allegations of
physical and sexual assault was a fabrication aimed to prevent the
police from entering the areas, "which is a known hub of illegal animal
slaughter".

Eight Muslim women were arrested in the combing
operations and booked along with another 100 on charges of rioting and
attacking public servants. All eight were produced before a local court
and sent to police custody for 24 hours. On being produced before
Godhra Chief Judicial Magistrate A N Tadvi on December 21, the women
showed the court their injuries, alleging that the policemen had beaten
and sexually assaulted them. The court granted them bail and also
ordered a probe. "But no inquiry been initiated into the incident till
date," said F I Charkha, one of the defence counsels of the victims.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/563965/

CBI has clues against Sanatan Sanstha: Goa CM (Jan 4, 2010, IBN)

Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat said on Monday that the CBI had
found some clues indicating right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha’s
involvement in the Margao blasts. "The CBI has found some clues against
Sanatan Sanstha during its investigations in Maharashtra and
Karnataka," Kamat told reporters after visiting the Shirdi Saibaba
temple. Two persons had died in the explosion, which had triggered
prematurely on Diwali eve.

Asserting that the two deceased in the
blasts were members of the Sanstha, the Goa Chief Minister said action
will be taken against the organisation once the CBI submits its report.
Kamat said work has already begun for the development of
four-lane-roads in Goa for which the Central Government has sanctioned
funds of Rs 2,500 crore.

The Government has also sanctioned a
National Institute of Technology for Goa, apart from a Super Speciality
hospital, he added. Kamat said his government had spent Rs 20 crore on
tightening security near sea shores and is also working towards
modernisation of the state police force.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/cbi-has-clues-against-sanatan-sanstha-goa-cm/108174-3.html

Rathores bail plea rejected, arrest possible any time (Jan 8, 2010, Times of India)

A Panchkula court on Friday dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of
former state police chief S P S Rathore, who molested teenager Ruchika
Girhotra 19 years ago, leaving it open for the Haryana police to arrest
him any time. Additional District and Sessions Judge Sanjeev Jindal
dismissed the bail plea filed by Rathore after two fresh First
Information Reports (FIRs) were registered against him Dec 29. Rathore
was booked under non-bailable charges like attempt to murder, criminal
intimidation, forging evidence, wrongful confinement, fabricating false
evidence and criminal conspiracy. Neither Rathore nor his wife Abha
Rathore, who is his counsel, were present in the court when the bail
plea was dismissed.

Rathore had got interim relief Jan 1 from
the court till Friday on his bail plea in the matter pertaining to the
two fresh FIRs registered against him. The court also rejected the
anticipatory bail plea of another Haryana police official, Sewa Singh,
a sub-inspector posted at Pinjore near Panchkula, who also has been
accused of implicating Ruchika’s brother Ashu in false cases of car
theft, allegedly at Rathore’s behest.

Sources in the Haryana
police said after the court order that the state director general of
police (DGP) and senior home department officials could now consult
chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda before arresting Rathore. The
Haryana police, through the state government, have already recommended
to the Central government that the fresh cases, including a third FIR
charging Rathore of abetment to suicide of Ruchika, be handed over to
the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for investigation.

"I
am happy and I have hope that justice will be done. We want him
arrested immediately," Ruchika’s friend Aradhana, whose family fought
the case against Rathore for over 19 years, said after the bail plea
was rejected. Aradhana alleged that state officials had already been
supporting Rathore in the past and that she did not have much faith in
the state machinery to take action against him. "The CBI is a more
independent agency and I hope they will be able to investigate the
matter properly," Aradhana added. Rathore’s counsel said after the
dismissal of the bail plea that they would move the high court to seek
relief.

Ruchika, a teenaged budding tennis player, was molested
by Rathore, then an inspector general of police, in Panchkula August
12, 1990. Three years later, Ruchika committed suicide. Nineteen years
after the molestation incident, Rathore was convicted by a Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court here Dec 21 and sentenced
to six months’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000. The light
conviction led to uproar in different sections of society, forcing
authorities to re-visit the case and seek justice for the molestation
victim. A magisterial inquiry by the Chandigarh administration had
Thursday indicted Ruchika’s school, Sacred Heart school, and its
principal for her expulsion on the flimsy grounds of non-payment of fee
in 1990, just after her molestation incident.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5424507.cms

Rathore stripped of police medal (Jan 5, 2010, Deccan Herald)

It took over 24 years for the Centre and the Haryana Government to
de-list the tainted former director- general of police S P S Rathore
from "the roll of honour." A committee of the Union Home Ministry on
Monday decided to take back Rathore