Shimla rape case: Himachal Pradesh High Court summons CBI director on April 18

The investigations into the case were handed over to the CBI after large-scale protests rocked Kotkhai, Theog and Shimla, and the subsequent death of one of the suspects, Suraj Singh, a Nepal national, in police custody on the intervening night of July 18 and 19.

The High Court referred the case to the CBI after Singh’s death and burning of the Kotkhai police station. The incident had triggered protests and violence after the victim’s post-mortem examination report confirmed rape.

The central agency had arrested nine policemen, including IGP-rank officer Zahur Zaidi, who was heading the SIT, former SP (Shimla) D W Negi and DSP (Theog) Manoj Joshi in the custodial death case. Despite the arrests, the agency is yet to make any headway in the case.

As the case came up for hearing, the CBI admitted it had not found anything concrete so far and needed another 90 days to complete the investigations.

Even during an earlier hearing, the bench had specifically asked the CBI to inform the court if it can’t meet the expectations of the public, and also court to solve the nine-month-old rape and murder mystery.

The agency had claimed that the investigations were moving forward as they were being carried out in a scientific manner. It, however, alleged that the state police had destroyed the evidence.

The bench today expressed surprise and dismay over the status report filed by the agency and wondered if it was worth granting more extensions to the CBI team, which had been camping in Shimla since July 22.

Nine interim reports had already been submitted to the High Court by the CBI team, which had initially asked for only three months time to complete the investigations.Meanwhile, the five accused in the case — Ashish Chauhan (29), Rajender Singh alias Raju (32), Subash Singh Bisht (42), Lokjan alias Chottu (19), Deepak alias Deepu (38) — have already been released on bail by the Shimla court. All nine police officials, facing murder charges in the custodial death case, are in jail since August 27.