File fresh status report within two weeks, high court to CBI
Police personnel, including members of special investigation team, listed as party in case; asked to appear in person today
SHIMLA: Expressing displeasure over the probe in the rape and murder of a 16-year-old schoolgirl, the Himachal Pradesh high court on Thursday gave two weeks to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a fresh status report.
The double bench, comprising acting chief justice Sanjay Karol and justice Sandeep Sharma also asked the special investigation team (SIT) and other police officials associated with the case —inspector general (IG) southern range SZH Zaidi, additional superintendent of police (rural) Bhajan Dev Negi, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Theog Manoj Joshi and others — to appear before it on August 18 after impleading them as party in the case.
The state, represented by advocate general Shrawan Dogra, said, “The CBI should inform the court about the status
of investigation so far.” The high court observed: “It appears that pursuant to the court order issued on August 19, as such no investigation took place till the CBI took over the case.”
Seeking four weeks from the court for filing another status report, the CBI counsel demanded more time for interro- gating the case that was followed by custodial death of Nepalese national Suraj, one of the accused in the case.
The high court also objected to the CBI’s move to split the SIT to investigate the rape and murder case and custodial death of the accused. Advocate general Shrawan Dogra, meanwhile, said, “The court observed that the CBI should vacate the state guest house Peterhoff, where the SIT is camping.”
The high court had directed CBI to probe both cases by constituting a SIT, headed by superintendent of police (SP) rank officials and two other DSP rank officers.
A day after the SIT arrested six accused on July 13, the state government recommended CBI to probe the matter. The CBI has submitted two status reports in this case .
WHAT IS THE CASE?
A Class 10 student was-raped and murdered at Shimla district’s Kotkhai area on July 4.
According to the police theory, she took a lift in a vehicle driven by one of the accused Raju. The body of the victim was recovered from thick Halaila forest on July 6.
Police formed an SIT on July 9, headed by an IG rank officer, which arrested six persons in connection with the case on July 13.
The SIT arrested Ashish Chauhan (29), Rajender Singh (32), Subhash Singh Bisht (42), Deepak alias Deepu (29) Suraj Singh (29) and Lok Jung (19). On July 18, one of the accused died in policy custody.
However, the police said that themain accused Rajinder Singh attacked Suraj inside the lockup.
The custodial death further fuelled public outrage in the area. People turned violent as a police station was torched in Kotkhai and three police vehicles were burnt.