Inspector General of Himachal Pradesh Police Zahur Haidar Zaidi and seven other policemen were arrested by the CBI on 29 August, in connection with the custodial death of a Nepalese man, who was a suspect in the rape and murder of a minor school girl in Kotkhai area of Shimla.
A 16-year-old girl, posthumously nicknamed ‘Gudia’, was raped and murdered on 4 July in Kotkhai. The Himachal Pradesh police found her body in the Halalia forest on 6 July, after her parents reported her missing.
Six suspects were taken into custody and lodged at the local police station. Last month, one of the suspects, Suraj Singh, a 29-year-old labourer from Nepal, was allegedly killed by a co-accused at the Kotkhai police station.
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The CBI, which was later handed over the probe into the case by the Himachal Pradesh High Court, questioned several people before arresting 1994-batch IPS officer Zaidi, the then IGP (South), Manoj Joshi, the then Deputy Superintendent of Police, and six other police officials, the agency officials said.
The arrested would be produced before a court on 30 August. The agency has registered two separate FIRs on the rape and murder of the minor girl and the custodial death of the suspect.
“The CBI has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by a Superintendent of Police and an Additional SP and a Deputy SP, and taken over the investigation of both the cases,” a CBI spokesperson had said.
An angry mob had earlier alleged that there were “irregularities in investigating” the rape case, resulting in Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh handing over the case to CBI.
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