E-Paper
Kotkhai cutodial death: CBI directs DGP Shimla to take ‘necessary action’ against IG Zaidi
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a supplementary challan in the ‘Kotkhai custodial death case’ wherein voice samples of IGP Zahur Haider Zaidi and SHO Rajinder Singh have matched, as per CFSL report.
The special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has issued a letter to the Shimla director general of police (DGP) with directions “to take necessary action” against inspector general (IG) Zaidi after an IPS officer told the court that the IG had been “pressurising” her till the night before the hearing.
Prosecution witness Soumya Sambasivan , an IPS officer posted at Commandant, 3rd India Reserve Battalion, at Pandoh in Mandi, Himachal, told the court that till last night, she was being “pressurised” and it had become “very difficult to continue (work)”.
“Sir, I want to present some facts in the court that Mr Zahur Zaidi has been trying to contact me over the phone (on my mobile and official landline number) since September 2019. He used the telephone of the Shimla police head quarter (PHQ) and his WhatsApp and mobile, and has done the same on the phone of my subordinate staff (sic),” the officer said.
“From the phone calls he has made, he has continuously tried to pressurise me to change my statement and has even said that I should be ready to face a team of lawyers and some 30-page questionnaire, adding that ‘I hope you will not inform this to the CBI’ (sic)” she said.
The officer said that she was so disturbed at work front and psychologically, that she had to report the matter in urgency to the DGP on December 10, 2019, at Dharamsala.
She said that due to the DGP’s intervention, Zaidi “stopped calling from PHQ’s telephone”. However, “he has used people to contact my reader and PSO to know my location on a day-to-day basis and has also asked some people to make me speak on my PSO’s mobile,” she said.
The officer was provided extra security for her to reach the court, as she claimed “Zaidi used people to influence me and started to find about my whereabouts through my subordinate staff till my arrival today.”
The CBI court, in a separate order, disposed of the application with “certain directions” to the DGP, Shimla, and public prosecutor for the CBI. Judge Sushil Kumar Garg told Zaidi that it was a violation and he should not try to influence or pressurise any witness.
PRESSURE REGARDING DISPOSAL OF DECEASED SURAJ’S BODY
Soumya told the court that on July 20, 2017, she joined as SP, Shimla, and took charge in the place of former SP DW Negi (accused). “There was pressure from sub-divisional police officer, Theog, Manoj Joshi and Zaidi regarding the disposal of deceased Suraj’s body–he died in custody. Body was lying at the IGMC mortuary in Shimla,” she told the court.
She said that she clarified with the CBI, “to which I got a response that I should not hand over the body, so I did not.”
Advocate Sukhija, defence counsel, countered her statement by asking, “when the case was taken by the CBI, and she had no power, then why would she be approached regarding disposal of body.”
