The Shimla-Chandigarh Diocese, which runs the Sacred Heart School in Chandigarh that was indicted by a magisterial probe on Thursday, maintained that no pressure was brought on the school to expel Ruchika Girhotra after she complained of molestation by former Haryana director general of police S P S Rathore.
"The schools is innocent... No one pressurised the school. I will always stand by the statement I made," Father Thomas, spokesman for the Diocese said.
Thomas's comments came shortly after a magisterial probe concluded there was "outside compelling influence" behind Ruchika's expulsion calling it "wrong and malafide" lending weight to suspicions that Rathore may have had a hand.
Ruchika committed suicide three years after she was molested in 1990.
He had earlier said Ruchika was never expelled and that "her name was struck off the attendance register because of non-payment of school fee for six months continuously -- from April to September 1990."
Thomas said he would not like to add anything till he goes through the report.
Pankaj Bharadwaj, counsel for the Girhotra family, said the probe finding was a "very important sequence" and was a "circumstantial evidence" to prove that Rathore had been pressing Ruchika's school to throw the 14-year-old girl out and "chase her to death". Rathore faced two fresh first information reports registered recently in which he was slapped with abetment to suicide charge.
Aradhana, Ruchika's classmate and an eyewitness to the molestation incident in 1990, alleged that the school principal (Sister Sebastina) in connivance with Rathore was responsible for the expulsion.
The school principal should be also punished for her role in getting Ruchika expelled, Aradhana said.
