Former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore, convicted in the Ruchika molestation case, was on Monday  attacked when a student of the prestigious NID posing as a journalist and said to have a pyschological disorder stabbed him thrice in the face with a pocket knife outside a local court. 

The condition of 68-year-old Rathore, who had gone to the court in connection with hearing of his appeal against the six-month sentence imposed on him, was stated to be stable. The shaken former top cop came back to the court with a walking stick for post-lunch proceedings with bandage on his right cheek amid tight security. 

The assailant identified as 29-year-old Utsav Sharma, a resident of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and pursuing a post-graduate diploma course in animation and film design at the National Institute of Design(NID) in Ahmedabad, has been arrested by the police and was being grilled. 

As Rathore stepped out of the district court complex after the morning proceedings and was barely 15 feet away from his waiting car, the assailant who was standing among mediapersons waiting for an interaction lunged forward, caught him by the neck and in a split second stabbed him thrice on his right cheek with a sharp-edged pocket knife. 

Rathore was also punched on his face by the youth who posed as a freelance journalist. The assailant had a still camera with him and pretended to took pictures of the approaching former cop, A bleeding Rathore covered the wound on his face with a handkerchief while an escorting policeman pinned the youth down to the ground just near the ex-cop's car when he tried to run in the midst of a commotion. The assailant also attempted to attack Rathore on the arm. 

"He appears to be pyschologically imbalanced. We are trying to ascertain the motive behind his action," Chandigarh's SSP S S Srivastava told PTI.Rathore was rushed to Sector 16 Government General Hospital for treatment while the youth was taken to the nearby Sector 17 Police Station. Srivastava said Utsav came from a good family background. Both his mother and father are professors, he said.

Utsav's father prof S K Sharma said his son was a brilliant student and one has to find out what is in his mind. "He should not have done that. He should not take law in his own hands," he said. He said prior to this he had done a course in Bachelor of Fine Arts. 

"We have also got some identity cards from him. Further investigations were on," he said, adding the accused had told the police that the sharp knife used in the crime was procured by him from Delhi. Ruchika Girhotra's family lawyer, Pankaj Bhardwaj termed the attack on Rathore as "unfortunate". 

Aradhana, the sole eye witness to Ruchika Girhotra s molestation, strongly condemned the attack and asked people to desist from taking law into their hands. 

After attending the court proceedings following the attack on him, Rathore again went to the hospital here where he had earlier gone for first aid after the incident. Security had been beefed up at the hospital. One of Rathore's lawyer, N D Sharma had also received some injuries as the attacker pounced on the former DGP. After coming out from the Court premises in the post-lunch session, Rathore did not talk to the waiting mediapersons. 

Using a walking stick, Rathore was looking calm and composed despite the attack as he walked out from the court room located on the third floor and later walked a few steps to get into his car. PTI