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Journalism of Courage
Days before the November 30 deadline set by the Himachal Pradesh High Court, the CBI on Saturday filed the chargesheet against IGP Zahur H Zaidi and seven other police personnel, who were arrested in the custodial death case of Suraj Singh, a suspect in the Kotkhai rape and murder case.
CBI officials said the charge-sheet, along with annexures and statements of the witnesses, around 50, runs into nearly 600 pages. Former Shimla SP D W Negi, who was arrested on November 16, has not been chargesheeted. “Investigations in his case are still under way, while the remaining eight, who were arrested on August 29, have been chargesheeted,” said an official.
Except Negi, all other arrested police officers were members of the SIT headed by Zaidi to probe the rape-murder case.
Sources in the probe agency said some of the arrested police officers would face charges of murder. The second autopsy of Suraj’s body under CBI watch had revealed 32 injury marks on his body, most inflicted by stick and belts.
In the chargesheet, the CBI has made Rajender Singh alias Raju as witness in the custodial death case. Earlier, the SIT had tried to “implicate” Raju in Suraj Singh’s murder to cover up his custodial death. The agency has also raised question marks on the post-mortem report of the deceased, which showed only 23 injury marks.
Zaidi asked the court to make a copy of the chargesheet available to him for his defence. The move was opposed by the CBI.
Five accused, besides Suraj, arrested by the police on July 13, are all out on bail now.
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