Shimla: After a nine-month probe of the infamous Gudiya rape and murder case, Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday asserted that its special investigation unit has cracked the mystery, as one accused is already behind the bars.
Deposing before the division bench of Himachal Pradesh High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Sandeep Sharma, the federal probe agency said that it would be able to complete the probe by July 11 in the matter and file final status report on July 11 disclosing the identity of all the accused.
Court showed displeasure at the leakage of the status report which was submitted by the CBI in a sealed cover.
CBI counsel did not address mediapersons after the court comment.
A city court on Wednesday sent an accused to Judicial Custody till May 7, who was earlier arrested by the CBI, in connection with the gangrape and murder.
The accused, a resident of Baijnath tehsil in Kangra district, was arrested on April 13 and remanded in 12-day Police Custody by the Competent Court of Shimla. After thorough interrogation, he was produced on wednesday before the Designated Court, which remanded him to Judicial Custody till May 7.
According to CBI, which had taken over the case on the directions of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, it had registered two cases on April 22, 2017, one relating to the rape and murder of a minor girl and another relating to the custodial death of one of the accused, arrested by the local police, during the course of investigation.
The Himachal Pradesh Police had earlier arrested six accused in this case. Out of these, one had died under alleged mysterious circumstances in police custody, for which a separate FIR was registered by the local police.
After taking over the probe, CBI had arrested nine Police officials of Himachal Pradesh, including then Inspector General of Police, Southern Range; then SP, Shimla; then DSP (SDOP), Theog; a Sub-Inspector & then SHO, Kotkhai; an ASI; three Head Constables and one Constable, all working in HP on August 29, 2017, in the case relating to custodial death of one of the accused Suraj Singh. All the accused are in judicial custody.
It was alleged that the girl had left Government Senior Secondary School, Mahashu on 04.07.2017 at about 1630 hrs. She did not reach home and her body was recovered two days later from the forest area of Hailalla, Kotkhai, District Shimla.
CBI instituted an elaborate inquiry and announced a reward of Rs10 lakh to anyone from the public for providing credible information resulting in arrest of real culprits.
After taking over the case, CBI formed separate teams including SP, ASP, DSP, Inspectors & other supporting staff who were continuously camped in the region and worked day & night for the last nine months to finally crack the case.
The team started by thoroughly combing the various areas including forests where the body of victim was found and questioned over one thousand people in this sparsely populated region.
The CBI team collected around 250 blood samples and its CFSL experts conducted various scientific tests including DNA profiling by using advance techniques of ‘percentage match’ and ‘lineage match’. After thorough examining of these scientific tests, the DNA profiles extracted from samples seized from scene of crime were matched with the DNA samples.
The area of investigation included Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir and Uttarakhand. It was also alleged that the arrested accused did not carry any mobile phone and was not in touch with his family but CBI kept watch on certain people whom he could call from public phones or phones of the other people. Subsequently, the suspect was tracked and apprehended from a Village near Hatkoti, District Shimla.
The Director CBI, Mr. Alok Kumar Verma has been monitoring the progress of the case from day one. He expressed satisfaction at the work done by the investigative team and forensic experts of CFSL, CBI, for solving a sensitive and difficult case. Further investigation in the case is continuing.
The High Court, which was monitoring the probe, again stressed upon the personal presence of CBI director in the court on next date given to agency on 9th May.
It had registered suo motu public interest litigation in the case and handed over the probe to CBI.
A local court on Wednesday extended till May 1 the judicial custody of nine policemen, accused in the custodial death of a suspect, who was arrested by the police in the gangrape and murder case.
The accused police officers, including former IG of Himachal Pradesh Police Z H Zaidi, former SP Shimla DW Negi and DSP Manoj Joshi, were produced before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Shimla Ranjeet Singh. CBI had charge sheeted them in the custodial death case of Suraj, a Nepal national, arrested in the Gudiya case. He died in Kotkhai police station lock up during the police remand on the intervening night of July 18 and 19 last year.
The Court fixed the next date of hearing on May 1, on the request of CBI to proceed with the trial against the accused. The Court may hear the national agency's plea on the next date, to frame charges against the accused.
CBI had arrested eight accused on July 28 last year, including Zaidi, Joshi, Kotkhai SHO Rajinder Singh and five others, who were directly linked to the custodial death of Suraj, as a Santery posted in the police station on the day of crime gave statement to the CBI, confirming the custodial death after third degree torture of the deceased.
The investigating agency arrested Negi on November 16, after finding his involvement in destroying of evidence and registering fake FIR against another suspect Rajinder alias Raju, who was also detained with the deceased in the case.
CBI also traced a voice recording on the mobile phone of one of the police officers posted in Kotkhai Police station, indicating involvement of members of SIT and other officials, in the custodial death of Suraj, forcing him to confess the crime.
The victim was working in an apple orchard, along with his wife, when he was picked up by the state police SIT, on suspicion.
Police had booked six persons in an FIR registered on July 15, 2017, against them. However during the CBI probe, all of them, including the victims, were not found involved in the heinous gangrape and murder case, and were released on bail by the court.
The national investigating agency has already handed over the charge sheet to the nine accused during the previous hearing of the court.
Handling of both cases by the state police dented its image and posed a big question mark on the authenticity of the high level probe in the sensitive case.
CBI lodged the FIR against the police officers on July 22, as the probe was handed over to the national agency by the state High Court after much resentment among people, who also set the Kotkahi Police station on fire over the custodial death.
Agency had earlier submitted number of Status reports in the High Court and sorted out the first case of custodial death of a Nepali at police station Kotkhai who was arrested as suspect by the state police. CBI arrested former IG Z H Zaidi, Shimla SP D W Negi and SP Manoj Joshi along with six others.
Chief Judicial Magistrate, Shimla, Rajinder Singh, remanded to 14-day judical custody Gudiya rape and murder case accused whose identity has not been made public.
Arrested by the CBI on April 13, the accused had undergone a 12-day police remand.
Indian National Congress, meanwhile, sought an apology from the Bharatiya Janata Party for maligning it .
Party state president Sukhinder Singh Sukhu stated that the BJP had grabbed power in the hill state after levelling charges, without an iota of truth, that Congress leaders were protecting the accused in the infamous case. More arrests, the CBI affirmed, were likely to be made.