Former Haryana police chief S.P.S. Rathore, convicted of molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra in 1990, was stabbed in the face by a youth wielding a sharp-edged weapon outside the district court complex here Monday.

While lawyers immediately took a bleeding Rathore, who was cut on his right cheek, for treatment, police swooped down on the youth identified as Utsav from Ahmedabad.

"He is saying his name Utsav, he has come from Ahmedabad," said Superintendent of Police (Chandigarh) Madhur Verma.

"He was having some sharp sort of weapon in his hand," Verma told reporters, adding that investigations were on to know if he was posing as a journalist. "It seems he was attacking Rathore to cause greater harm."

Chandigarh Home Secretary Ram Niwas added that the matter was being investigated.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court had held Rathore guilty in December last year for molesting 15-year-old Ruchika in Panchkula town in August 1990. She committed suicide three years later.

He was sentenced to six months' rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs.1,000 in the 19-year-old molestation case. Rathore was granted bail immediately after his conviction.

A three-day continuous hearing of the case started in-camera at the district and sessions court in Sector 17 here following Rathore's appeal against his conviction.

The court is hearing two matters -- one related to the appeal filed by Rathore against his conviction for molestation by the CBI special court and the second on the application moved by CBI seeking enhancement of his sentence from six months to two years of rigorous imprisonment.

Date : 08/02/2010. News by Newsofap.com