Kothkai custodial death case: HP ex-IGP bail plea deferred till March 6

The hearing of a plea moved by HP’s senior IPS officer Zahur Haider Zaidi, seeking restoration of bail has been deferred till March 6 as the Central Bureau of Investigation

The hearing of a plea moved by HP’s senior IPS officer Zahur Haider Zaidi, seeking restoration of bail has been deferred till March 6 as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday sought time to file its reply in the matter.

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Former Inspector general of police (IGP) Zaidi is an accused in the Kothkai custodial death case and was taken into custody in January after a local court cancelled his bail for attempting to influence the trial. Zaidi was granted bail by the Supreme Court, last year.

The trial court had cancelled the bail after prosecution witness and SP-rank officer Soumya Sambasivan gave a statement before it that she was being pressured by the accused in an attempt to influence the trial. Sambasivan had accused Zaidi of pressuring her to change her statement.

The case

The case relates to the custodial death of an accused, who had been arrested in the case of alleged rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in Kotkhai area of Shimla district.

Six men were arrested by the Himachal Pradesh Police in the case and one of those was later found dead at the Kotkhai police station. The nine accused in the case include Zaidi, SP DW Negi; DSP, Theog, Manoj Joshi; former Kotkhai SHO Rajinder Singh, ASI Deep Chand, who was investigating officer of the case, head constables Surat Singh, Mohan Lal and Rafee Mohammad and constable Ranjit Steta. The trial in the 2017 case was transferred to Chandigarh on orders of the Supreme Court.