HC dismisses Zaidi’s bail plea

SHIMLA :The Himachal Pradesh high court (HC) rejected the bail petition of suspended IG Zahur Zaidi, who continues to be in judicial custody in the case of custodial death of a suspect in Kotkhai gangrape and murder case.

Zaidi had filed a bail application in HC stating that the case against him was baseless. The court that had reserved the judgment, rejected the bail plea on Friday.

The CBI has filed chargesheet in the lower court against Zaidi and seven other cops.

“After the formation of the SIT, the then IG, Zahur Zaidi, Shimla SP DW Negi, Theog DSP Manoj Joshi and other accused police officers had entered into a criminal conspiracy to falsely implicate Suraj Singh and others in the Kotkhai rape and murder case,” read the CBI’s November 25 chargesheet, which was filed against eight cops, including Zaidi.

According to the chargesheet, the SIT had arrested Suraj and four others on July 13 — a week after the girl’s body was found — even though there was no evidence against them.

The CBI also noted that Suraj was tortured to “extract” a confession, and another man the SIT arrested in the case was forced at gunpoint to admit to his involvement in the crime.

After taking over probe following a Himachal Pradesh high court order, the CBI re-examined Suraj’s body in the presence of experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on July 25. The report had revealed that Singh’s injuries were sustained in time intervals ranging from about two days to two hours prior to his death.