The CBI on Thursday arrested former Superintendent of Police, Shimla, over the alleged custodial death of one of the suspects in the Gudia gangrape-and-murder case.

DW Negi, who is presently posted with the state’s Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, was produced before a CBI court here which remanded him to police custody till 20 November.

Advertisement

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation had arrested eight members of Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Himachal Pradesh government to probe the Gudia case.

Those arrested earlier included Inspector General of Police Zahoor  Zaidi.

Sources said the latest arrest was part of the ongoing investigations in the case.

The CBI team which is investigating both the Gudia case and the custodial death of one of the suspects in that case ~ Nepalese national Suraj ~ are camping at the crime scene at Kotkhai in Shimla district.

On Wednesday, the CBI had questioned two men who were arrested by the HP Police in the case.

All the suspects had been granted bail by a CBI court in October as the investigating agency had failed to file a charge-sheet against them within the stipulated 90 days.

The CBI had also sought court’s permission to take voice samples of IG Zahur H Zaidi, Theog DSP Manoj Joshi, then SHO Kotkhai Rajender Singh, ASI Deep Chand Sharma, head constables Surat Singh, Mohan Lal and Rafiq Ali and constable Ranjit Singh.

Sources said the CBI is seeking voice samples as the officials have got hold of some call recordings in the custodial death case.

Gudia, a class 10 girl from Kotkhai, had gone missing while returning home from school on 4 July. Her body was found in the woods on 6 July.

An autopsy confirmed that she was raped and strangled.

The state SIT had arrested Ashish Chauhan, Rajender Singh alias Raju, Deepak, Subhash Singh Bisht, Suraj and Lokjan for the ghastly crime on 12 and 13 July.  Suraj was later killed in police custody.

The police theory failed to satisfy the public which alleged that they were sheltering some influential people.

This triggered public protests in upper Shimla, leading to the state government referring the case to the CBI.