With the CBI arresting the former head of the SIT, will Himachal's Gudiya get justice now?
Nearly two months after the gangrape-and-murder of a 16-year-old girl shook Himachal Pradesh, the CBI on Tuesday arrested an Inspector General ranking officer,seven others over custodial death of an accused in the case.
Inspector General of Himachal Pradesh Police Zahur Haidar Zaidi, who was heading the Special Investigation Team in the case, had claimed to have solved the case on July 13.
However, after the public anger refused to die down, Zaidi went on leave without the much needed explanation.
Earlier, Zaidi, who was the inspector general (IG) southern range, was transferred as IG (welfare and administration), Shimla police headquarters, a Hindustan Times report said.
Zaidi and others have been arrested in connection with the custodial death of a Nepalese labourer, who was a suspect in the rape-and-murder of Gudiya, the minor school girl in Kotkhai area of Shimla.
During the probe of the July 4 rape-and-murder case, the state police had taken custody of six suspects who were lodged at the local police station.
Suraj Singh, a 29-year-old labourer from Nepal, was allegedly killed by a co-accused at the Kotkhai police station last month.
The state saw massive protests from the public that accused the government of shielding the real culprits as they belonged from rich families.
The CBI, which was later handed over the probe into the case by the Himachal Pradesh High Court, questioned several people before arresting 1994-batch IPS officer Zaidi, the then IGP (South), Manoj Joshi, the then Deputy Superintendent of Police, and six other police officials, the agency officials said.
The arrested would be produced before a court on Wednesday, they said.
The agency has registered two separate FIRs on the rape- and-murder of the minor girl and the custodial death of the suspect.
"The CBI has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by a Superintendent of Police and an Additional SP and a Deputy SP, and taken over the investigation of both the cases," a CBI spokesperson had said.
Gudiya was allegedly abducted from her way to home after school and gangraped by the accused.
It was only after the medical examination that the case of sexual assault came to light. The teenager who was always accompanied by her brother was alone on that fateful day.
According to reports, one of the accused who was from her village, offered Gudiya lift in his pickup van.
After travelling for some distance, the accused along with five others took Gudiya to a nearby forest and gangraped her. Her body was recovered from that forest two days later.
(With PTI inputs)
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