CBI to reexamine body of Shimla rape accused
CUSTODIAL DEATH The Nepali man died allegedly after a scuffle with another accused
SHIMLA: The CBI is likely to re-examine the body of the gang-rapeaccused Nepalese, one of the accused in the gang-rape-andmurder of a 16-year-old girl in Kotkhai and who died in police custody five days ago, according to sources.
The investigating agency had registered two FIRs on Saturday in the gang-rape-and-murder and the custodial death of the accused after taking over the cases from the state police, and began probe into the cases.
Suraj Singh had succumbed to injuries caused during a scuffle in police lock-up with another accused Rajendra Singh, police had said. His death triggered violent protests in Kotkhai on Wednesday. The same day, the Himachal Pradesh high court ordered the CBI to take over the probe. Various Nepalese associations, active in Himachal, have asked the district administration to release Suraj’s body at the earliest.
However since Wednesday, his body has been lying in the morgue in Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), where doctors had conducted autopsy and confirmed the death by injuries.
“So far, no one has come to take the body,” a doctor at IGMC said, requesting anonymity.
Sources told Hindustan Times that reportedly a CBI team will re-examine the body on Monday.
CBI sleuths who split into different teams to probe the gang rape of the teen and the custodial death of the accused Nepalese national, visited different locations and conducted inquiries and investigations.
CBI’s forensic experts visited the crime scene in Hilaila village in Shimla district’s Kotkhai tehsil and reportedly questioned locals about the antecedents of the six accused — Ashish Chauhan alias Ashu (29), (said to be from an influential political family), Rajender Singh alias Raju (32), Subash Singh Bisht (42), Suraj Singh (29), Lok Jan (19) and Deepak (38) — who have been arrested. They also questioned the relatives of the 16-year-old girl who died after the sexual assault besides making enquiries about Suraj, who lived in a hut close to a dense deodar forest.
One team worked out the details at crime spot and examined the vehicle used in the crime. The “botched-up” investigation by Himachal police’s special investigation unit is also under scanner.