The CBI has summoned another cop, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Traffic, Rattan Singh Negi who was part of Special Investigation Team (SIT) for questioning at its headquarters in New Delhi in the Kotkhai gangrape and murder case.
Sources said Rattan Singh Negi was summoned for questioning on Friday and he had joined investigations last evening. “Negi is still being questioned by CBI officials in Delhi,” sources said.
Earlier, former Shimla SP, D W Negi was also taken to Delhi for investigations after his arrest on Thursday afternoon.
The CBI officials have reportedly got hold of call recordings which reportedly contains conversations pertaining to hushing up of the case between some members of SIT.
D W Negi was reportedly arrested on the basis of the evidence and the CBI officials are hopeful of cracking the gangrape and murder case on the basis of the questioning of these officials.
D W Negi was posted as the SP of Shimla district when the 16-year-old girl was gangraped and murdered after which SIT was constituted to investigate the case and later one accused, Suraj was allegedly murdered inside Police Station.
After the death, he had told the media that another accused Rajender Singh had murdered Suraj.
The custodial death had led the public suspecting botched up investigations to shield the actual culprits, who were said to be from influential families.
The other reason that fueled public outrage, resulting in the ransacking of Theog Police Station was the release of photos of some persons from Chief Minister’s official Facebook page, claiming them to be the suspects. However, the images were deleted within hours and the CM’s IT Cell had later termed it as technical glitch.
After the custodial death, the Himachal Pradesh High Court had handed over the case to CBI and the investigating agency had arrested eight members of SIT for custodial death of Suraj on 29 August.
The cops were arrested on the basis of a statement given by a Constable (Santry), posted at Kotkhai Police Station, alleging that he was allegedly made to sign a pre-written statement over the custodial death of Suraj. He was later given police protection as the CBI sensed threat to his life.
Following the custodial death, the entire staff of the Kotkhai police station was suspended and D W Negi was transferred from the post of SP Shimla to Vigilance Department.
Though CBI had made breakthrough in custodial death, it is yet to nab the real culprits behind ghastly crime as DNA samples of all arrested accused as well as some additional suspects didn’t match with the samples found at the crime spot.
The Class X 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 Ashish Chauhan, Rajender Singh alias Raju, Deepak, Subhash Singh Bisht, Suraj and Lokjan. All the accused are currently out on bail.