Ex-Shimla SP Negi suspended, taken to Delhi for interrogation

SHIMLA: Two days after his arrest in the case of custodial death of an accused in Kotkhai rape and murder case, former Shimla superintendent of police DW Negi was deemed suspended on Saturday.

“It is mandatory to suspend an official after 48 hours of his arrest,” a home department official said. Negi is an HPS officer, who started his career as a station house officer.

Negi, considered close to chief minister Virbhadra Singh, was SP Shimla when Suraj, a Nepalese national accused in Kotkhai rape and murder case, died in the police custody at Kotkhai police station on July 18.

The CBI have taken Negi to New Delhi for interrogation.

The bureau had also called DSP Rattan Singh Negi for the interrogation. Singh was in the SIT for call-detail records analysis.

The officials detected some frequently used numbers after Suraj’s death in July. Sentry Dinesh Kumar’s confessions have proved vital in the arrest of inspector general (IG) Zahur Zaidi, who headed the SIT probing the rape and murder case.

Besides Zaidi, the CBI had arrested deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Manoj Joshi, sub-inspector (SI) Rajinder Singh and assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Deep Chand Sharma along with head constables Surat Singh, Mohan Lal, Rafiq Ali and Ranjit Singh on August 29.

CBI has filed an application in the lower court seeking nod to conduct voice-sampling test.

The court will hear the plea on November 20.

Earlier, the Himachal Pradesh high Court had given November 30 as deadline to file chargesheet in the custodial death case.

In the Kotkhai rape and murder case, police had arrested Ashish Chauhan, 29, Rajender Singh, 32, Subhash Singh Bisht, 42, Deepak alias Deepu, 29, and Lok Jung, 19, on July 13.

However all of these are out on bail.