More than a month after Shimla residents took to streets to protest the action of Himachal Pradesh police in the Kotkhai gangrape case, the CBI on Tuesday took into custody 8 cops of Himachal Pradesh police, including Inspector General of Police ZH Zaidi.
Soon after the arrests, the investigation agency produced the arrested cops before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Shimla and got their police remand for six days.
The arrest came more than a week after the CBI filed its second status report in the High Court of Himachal Pradesh on the investigation in Kotkhai gangrape and the murder of an accused, Suraj, in police custody.
Taking the second status report on record, High Court had put a big question mark on the role of members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Kotkhai gangrape case. The SIT had come under fire when questions were raised on the shoddy investigation and arrest of six people by the SIT.
The mystery in the investigation intensified, when an accused Suraj was murdered in police custody after a week of his arrest. This is perhaps the first time, when an officer of IG level has been arrested for shoddy investigation and custodial death.
CBI arrested SIT head IG ZH Zaidi, DSP Manoj Joshi, SHO Rajinder Singh, ASI Deep Chand, Head Constable Surat Singh, Mohan lal, Rafeeq Ali and Constable Ranjeet Singh.
Arrests were made in the case of custodial death of Suraj. CBI was entrusted with the probe of the custodial death of ‘Suraj’ besides the Kotkhai gang rape and murder case. Just two days back, the CBI had complained in the High Court that the members of SIT had not been cooperating in the investigation.
The Kotkhai gangrape case, in which a 16 years old girl was brutally killed after gangrape had created a storm of public anger in the State. The girl was kidnapped on July 4 and her brutally murdered body was found in forest area in Kotkhai on July 6. The Himachal Pradesh police had investigated the matter for more than a week and the SIT constituted by State Government had claimed to have solved the mystery of the case by nabbing six people, in which four were labourers.
After the arrest of six accused, the police theory had come under fire from different quarters as serious questions were raised over the theory of arrest of the accused. As the murder of an accused, Suraj, in police custody led to Statewide violent protests, the investigation was later handed over to the CBI on recommendation of State Government and consequent directions by the High Court.
The trouble for the members of SIT had started when the High Court on previous hearing had asked all its members to file their personal affidavits about the investigation in the gangrape case. The court had also restrained the SIT members from taking services of the Government legal machinery for filing their affidavits.