Shimla, Aug 31: The CBI brought eight Himachal Pradesh police officials, including an IGP, to its headquarters in the national capital for questioning in the custodial death of an accused in a rape case. According to sources, the police officials will be questioned by a SIT of the CBI which is probing the matter.Inspector General of Himachal Pradesh Police Zahur Haidar Zaidi and seven other policemen were arrested by the CBI yesterday in connection with the custodial death of Suraj Singh, a 29-year-old labourer from Nepal.
Singh, who was a suspect in the rape-and-murder of a minor school girl in Kotkhai area of Shimla in early July, was among six people arrested by the local police. He was allegedly killed by a co-accused at the Kotkhai police station last month, triggering a massive public outrage.
The CBI, which was later handed over the probe into the case by the Himachal Pradesh High Court, questioned several people before arresting Zaidi, a 1994-batch IPS officer, the then IGP (South) Manoj Joshi, the then Deputy Superintendent of Police, and six other police officials, the probe agency officials said.
The arrested accused were produced in the competent court in Shimla yesterday which sent them to the CBI custody till September 4.The Class X student had gone missing on July 4 and her naked body was recovered from Haliala forests in Kotkhai on July 6.
“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,” the CBI had said earlier.
Source Tribune India
