Shimla: Expressing displeasure over the delay in nabbing real culprit in rape and murder case of a 16-year-old girl, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh has summoned the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Hon’ble Court has summoned the CBI Director for April 18 and directed the Director to file his personal affidavit indicating the fresh status.
Passing the order, the Bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Sandeep Sharma observed “We find that the stage has come, for in our considered view, as it appears from the reports filed so far. Perhaps, the investigating agency is clueless with regard to the whereabouts of the persons engaged and involved in the heinous crime.”
The counsel for the CBI handed over the status report in a sealed cover. After perusing the same, the court said: “Are we to understand that officers of the CBI are not competent enough to unearth the crime, of such a nature, in the past eight months?”
The Court question the inordinate delay in investigation and nabbing of culprits. The Court also questioned that why CBI isn’t deploying more persons having greater experience and expertise in the case.
An innocent 16 years old school going girl was raped and brutally killed. And her naked body was found dumped in a dense deodar forest of Halaila village on July 6, two days after she went missing while returning from her school at Mahasu, Kotkhai. The state police investigated and arrested six accused. Following the accused death in custody and large-scale protests in Kotkahi, Theog, Shimla and few other part of the state, the investigations into the case were handed over to the CBI.
The CBI had arrested nine policemen, including IGP-rank officer Zahur Zaidi, who was heading the SIT, former SP (Shimla) and DSP (Theog) in the custodial death case. Despite the arrests, the agency is yet to make any headway in the case.
