CHANDIGARH: Former Haryana police chief SPS Rathore, convicted of molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra in 1990, was stabbed thrice in the face by a youth wielding a sharp-edged pocket knife outside the district court complex here on Monday.

As Rathore stepped out of the complex in Sector 17 and was headed towards his car, the young attacker caught him by the neck and in a split second stabbed him thrice.

His wife and counsel Abha Rathore was with him at the time.

While lawyers immediately took a bleeding and stunned Rathore, who bled from his right cheek, to the government Multi-Specialty Hospital, police swooped down on the youth identified as Utsav from Ahmedabad.

He told the police that he was studying film production in Ahmedabad.

He had been posing as a freelance journalist and roaming around the court complex since morning.

The attacker mingled with mediapersons waiting outside for Rathore to cover the first day of the three-day hearing against his conviction which started on Monday.

When the court resumed, the judge said a decision on the continuance on the hearing would be taken after hearing Rathore's counsel.

Senior Superintendent of Police SS Srivastava said that the young man "seemed tobe mentally unstable" and he had been living in the city for about a month.

Police said he was being questioned on the motive of the attack.

The knife was quickly seized from him.

"He is saying his name Utsav, he has come from Ahmedabad," said deputy superintendent of police (Chandigarh) Jagbir Singh.

The attacker also stated that he originally belonged to Varanasi.

"He was having some sharp sort of weapon in his hand," Jasbir Singh told reporters.

"It seems he was attacking Rathore to cause greater harm." Though shaken by the sudden attack, Rathore pulled out his handkerchief and put it on his bleeding cheek as he tried to regain composure.

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.

Agencies