CBI Arrests Eight Himachal Pradesh Police Officials Over Custodial Death Of Rape-Murder Accused

Eight Himachal Pradesh police officials, including an Inspector General (IG), were arrested by the CBI over the custodial death of a man accused of the rape and murder of a schoolgirl in July in Kotkhai, 55 km from capital Shimla.

Those arrested are IG, welfare and administration, Zahur H Zaidi, who headed the special investigation team (SIT) formed to probe the rape and murder of the minor; then Theog deputy superintendent of police P Manoj Joshi and Station House Officer Rajender Singh, Assistant Sub-inspector Deep Chand Sharma, who were part of the SIT, head constables Surat Singh, Mohan Lal and Rafiq Ali and constable Ranjit Streta.

A local court has remanded them to police custody till 4 September.

The 16-year-old Class X girl had gone missing while returning from school on July 4 and her naked body was recovered from Halaila forests (Kotkhai) near her village on 6 July. A case of gang rape and murder was registered following a postmortem, but the police failed to identify the culprits. So the SIT was constituted on 10 July and all six “accused” were arrested within two days, but the teenager's family insisted the real culprits hadn't been arrested.

Suraj Singh (29), a Nepalese labourer and one of the six accused, was allegedly killed in a lock-up at the Kotkhai police station on the intervening night of July 18 and 19. The police had claimed that another accused, Raju, hit Suraj on his private parts and banged his head against the wall, which proved fatal.

The death of Singh fuelled the public anger, as not many were ready to buy the police story and alleged a cover-up to protect the main accused. The Himachal Pradesh High Court eventually ordered a CBI probe, following which two FIRs were filed on 22 July. On 24 August the High Court had given the CBI two weeks to complete its probe and file a status report on 7 September.