Chandigarh, Jan 18: A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Saturday convicted Himachal Pradesh Inspector General of Police Z.H. Zaidi and seven others for the infamous custodial death of an accused in gangrape-murder of a minor in 2017.
The other accused who were convicted include the then Deputy Superintendent of Police Manoj Joshi, Sub-Inspector Rajinder Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector Deep Chand Sharma, Mohan Lal, Surat Singh, Rafee Mohammad and Ranit Sateta. However, the court acquitted former Superintendent of Police D.W. Negi.
The court will pronounce the quantum of the sentence on January 27. The Supreme Court in 2019 transferred the case from Shimla to Chandigarh on a plea filed by the CBI for expeditious disposal of the case.
The girl had gone missing in Kotkhai and her body was found in a forest near Kotkhai town in Shimla district on July 6, 2017, two days after her disappearance. The crime had led to arson by a mob demanding justice for the girl.
After the crime, police had claimed that the schoolgirl was offered a lift in a vehicle by one of the accused while she was returning home from school in Kotkhai town, 56 km from Shimla. On the way, the accused and his accomplices gang-raped and murdered her in a nearby forest.
Her naked body with injury marks was found. Later, the Himachal Pradesh government agreed to recommend a CBI probe. After the CBI took over, nine police personnel, including Inspector General of Police Zaidi and former Shimla Superintendent of Police D.W. Negi, were arrested on the charge of custodial death of accused Suraj.
Zaidi was head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the case before the CBI took over. The SIT had arrested six persons, one of whom (Suraj) died at the Kotkhai police station on the night of July 18, 2017. Zaidi and eight others were arrested in connection with the custodial death.
The CBI, which arrested Nilu, said he was the lone accused while those arrested by the Himachal Police were not involved. Charges against them were dropped. Inspector General Zaidi was reinstated in November 2019 after he was released on bail on April 5, 2019, by the Supreme Court. The government again suspended him on January 15, 2020, after Superintendent of Police Soumya Sambasivan alleged that he was pressurising her to change her statement.
IANS
