CBI court on Thursday extended the judicial custody on nine cops including IG Zahur H Zaidi and former SP Shimla, DW Negi in custodial death of one of the accused in Gudia gangrape and murder case. The arrested cops were produced before CBI court here which extended their judicial custody till 25 November as lawyers didn’t turn up for hearing.

The hearing on permission for taking voice samples of cops would also take place on 25 November and the court is likely to pass an order on the issue.

Earlier, the district bar association has decided to not to plead the case of accused cops in ghastly gangrape and murder case in Kotkhai area of Shimla district which led to public outrage across the state.

The cops were arrested for alleged custodial of one of the accused, Suraj, a Nepalese national, though, the Police had claimed he was murdered by another accused, Rajender Singh.

Gudia, a tenth standard girl from Kotkhai, had gone missing while returning home from school on 4 July. Her body was found in the woods on 6 July with multiple injuries on her body. Her autopsy had confirmed that she was gangraped and later, strangulated to death.

Following public outrage over ghastly crime, the government had constituted a SIT which had arrested six persons, AshishChauhan, Rajender Singh alias Raju, Deepak, Subhash Singh Bisht, Suraj (who later killed in police custody) and Lokjan for the ghastly crime on 12 and 13 July.

On 19 July, the Court had directed the CBI to probe into the Gudia case, along with custodial death case and on 29 August, eight members of Special Investigation Team (SIT) were arrested for custodial death.

The CBI had taken five accused in Gudiagangrape and murder case to Ahmedabad lab to conduct narco test to unravel the mystery behind the ghastly crime but no incriminating evidence was found against four accused (Rajender Singh, Deepak, Subhash Singh Bisht, and Lokjan).The CBI had reportedly got hold of some voice recordings on the basis of which D W Negi was arrested.The CBI is now working on the theory that the HP Police had tried to hush-up the Gudia case and had framed innocents to shield the real culprits. The investigating agency is now trying to track money trail as huge payout is suspected to have been made to shield accused who reportedly belonged to influential families.