Karnal (Haryana), Dec 29 : Former Haryana director general of police (DGP) R. R. Singh Tuesday offered to be a witness against disgraced police officer and teenaged girl Ruchika Girhotra's molestor, S. P. S. Rathore.

Singh, who lives in this Haryana town, 130 km from Chandigarh, after retirement, said: "I am willing to be a witness against Rathore in any court that takes up the matter against him. My sympathies are with the Girhotra family."

Singh was Haryana's DGP when Rathore, who was an inspector general of police then, molested Ruchika at his under-construction house in Panchkula near Chandigarh, Aug 12, 1990.

Following directions from the Haryana government, which had received a molestation complaint against Rathore, Singh was asked to probe the matter.

In his report to the state government, submitted Sep 3, 1990, Singh had held Rathore prima facie guilty of Ruchika's molestation. He had recommended that a case be registered against Rathore and appropriate administrative action also be initiated.

However, the then home minister Sampat Singh, who is now a Congress legislator, and chief minister Hukum Singh (Lok Dal party) did not take any action against Rathore.

The disgraced police officer continued to enjoy the patronage of subsequent chief ministers, Bhajan Lal (Congress), Bansi Lal (Haryana Vikas Party supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party) and Om Prakash Chautala (Indian National Lok Dal - INLD), to get the molestation inquiry and its court case delayed for 19 years.

Rathore was convicted last week by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in Chandigarh and sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1,000.

He was immediately let out on bail by the court to enable him to appeal against the order in a high court.

Ruchika, a budding tennis player, who was 14 years of age at the time of her molestation, committed suicide by consuming poison three years after the incident in 1993. (IANS)