Panchkula, Dec 29 : Residents of a village in the Panchkula district of Haryana Tuesday accused tainted cop S. P. S. Rathore of illegally occupying 27 acres of their common village land as well as buying 13 acres of their private land after making false promises.

Led by the village sarpanch (headman), over 20 residents of village Badhour Tuesday gathered at the house of Anand Prakash, complainant in the Ruchika molestation case, and levelled allegations against Rathore.

"In July 1995, Rathore bought 13 acres of land in our village. He made false promises of jobs and other incentives to the owners of the land and got their signatures or thumb impressions on the registration papers," Chuher Singh, sarpanch of Badhour village, told reporters here Tuesday.

He added: "But till date he has neither fulfilled the promises nor given the pre-decided amount to the villagers. Some of the people have not even got a single penny from Rathore. Adjoining these
13 acres, there was 27 acres of common village land and Rathore forcibly occupied this area in August 1995."

Chuher Singh said that they took this case to the sub divisional magistrate (SDM), who gave the verdict in favour of the villagers. Rathore then took the case to the deputy commissioner who again favoured the villagers.

"Then Rathore approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which again told the SDM to decide the matter. The case is still pending there," Chuher Singh said.

Vikram Singh, one of the villagers, said: "Rathore had bought three acres of my land (part of the 13 acres) but he has not given me any money. He is never available on phone and whenever we go to meet him, his servant says that he is out of town."

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Chandigarh had Dec 21 held Rathore, former director general of police, guilty of molesting 14-year-old Ruchika in Panchkula town Aug 12,
1990 and sentenced him to a six-month prison term. Rathore was immediately granted bail.

A budding tennis player Ruchika had committed suicide three years after the incident.