Former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore, convicted in the Ruchika molestation case, was today 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.