Chandigarh, May 25 (IANS) Former Haryana police chief S.P.S Rathore was Tuesday sentenced to 18 months in prison by a Chandigarh court for the 1990 molestation of teenager Ruchika Girhotra, who committed suicide three years later. Rathore was arrested immediately.

The district and sessions court sentenced the disgraced former police official to one and a half years of rigorous imprisonment, enhancing his earlier six-month sentence.

Rejecting his appeal against his conviction by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court here last year, additional district and sessions judge Gurbir Singh said that Rathore should be taken into custody and taken to the Burail prison here immediately.

The CBI had opposed Rathore's plea and had sought an enhancement of his sentence from six months to the maximum of two years after his conviction in the August 1990 molestation case of teenager Ruchika Girhotra, who committed suicide three years later.