Shimla: The unrest among people of Shimla’s Kotkhai region is again growing as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), after an ongoing probe of six months, could not nab the real culprits in the case relating to the gangrape and barbaric murder of a minor girl in the forests of the Kotkhai Tehsil of Shimla district in July this year.
The people and social organizations like the Madad Sewa Trust have already warned of aggressive protests in case the CBI fails to put real culprits behind bars.
The CBI has only nine days left for the investigation as it is supposed to file its final status report in the case by December 20.
The locals, while reporting regular sightings of the CBI teams in the area, said that the agency is still searching for evidences, witnesses, or any sort of information related to the case. The locals said that the CBI is still questioning random people in and around Kotkhai.
During last few days, the CBI has reportedly questioned a contractor of a building constructed recently in the area and all lumberjacks it could find in the area, and so on.
While filing the chargesheet against the eight police officials for the alleged custodial killing of a Nepalese laborer at the Kotkhai Police Station on the night of July 18, the CBI had told the court that it collected and sent samples of about 800 people for forensic testing.
The question which is bothering the people is that why CBI’s suspicion extends to such a large number of people. The forensic testing of such a large number of samples would take months of time.
It appears the CBI is either shooting in the dark as its hands are empty or it does not possess sufficient evidences to arrest anyone in the case, fear the locals.
Further, the CBI had told the court that the police SIT arrested all six accused without any substantial evidences and tried to extract false confessions by exposing them to extreme physical tormenting.
As per the CBI, the local police allegedly hacked Suraj Singh, one of the six accused, to death while forcing him to make a confession.
All remaining five accused were later granted bail by the court as the CBI could not find any evidence against them.
The nine police officials including the ex-Inspector General of Police, South Range, Zahur H Zaidi, ex-Deputy SP Theog, and then SP, Shimla, DW Negi are in judicial custody at the Model Central Jail Kanda.
However, the CBI has not made any arrest after this episode. If the CBI has not made any arrest, it simply implies that either its hands are empty, it or may be waiting for the right moment.
The arrested police officials were sent to judicial custody till 19 December as the CBI said the government is yet to give its consent to initiate a trial against these police officials.
The CBI had filed an application in the special CBI court to allow collection and matching of the voice samples of the accused cops. It is believed that the CBI has call/voice recordings of the conversation between the accused.
However, the CBI could not receive the permission during last four hearings because no counsel appeared for the accused cops. The Bar Association had decided that no advocate would defend the accused involved in such a heinous crime.
The court has provided the accused with legal aid, which they reportedly denied.
The CBI is more than sure that it has clinching evidences of various sorts to prove that Suraj was killed by the cops, and not by the Raju, a co-accused arrested by SIT along with five others on July 13.
The parents of the victim and people still have hope that the top investigation agency of India will get justice for Gudiya.
