HP: CBI court rejects bail plea of IGP in custodial death case

A CBI court today rejected the bail plea of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Z H Zaidi in the case of custodial death of an accused in the rape-and-murder of a teenage girl in Kotkhai in Himachal Pradesh.
The court extended the judicial remand of Zaidi, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Manoj Joshi and six other policemen by two weeks up to November 12 in the case.
Zaidi, the then Theog DSP Joshi, the then Staton House Officer of Kotkhai, one Assistant Sub-Inspector, three head constables and one constable were arrested by the CBI on August 29.
Suraj Singh, an accused in the rape-and-murder case, was killed allegedly by another accused in the case at Kotkhai police station on the intervening night of July 18 and 19, triggering a massive public outrage.

Suraj Singh, a 29-year-old labourer from Nepal, was among six people arrested by the local police.
The remaining five accused in the rape-and-murder case have been released on bail as the CBI failed to file the charge sheet within 90 days.

Zaidi was heading a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case of rape-and-murder of the minor school girl in Kotkhai area of Shimla in early July.
The case was later transferred to the CBI on the orders of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
The Class X student had gone missing on July 4 and her naked body was recovered from Haliala forests in Kotkhai on July 6.

The CBI has so far submitted six status reports and the high court has directed the CBI to file the charge sheet in the custodial death case by November 30.