A student of a school in Kotkhai, 58 km from Shimla, went missing on 4 July 2017. Her body was recovered from the forest two days later. In this case, the SIT arrested five labourers including a local youth, which included Nepali youth Suraj. Suraj died on 18 July 2017 in Kotkhai police station.
The testimony of constable Dinesh, sentry of Kotkhai police station, proved to be the most important in declaring eight police personnel including Himachal IPS IG Zahoor Haider Zaidi guilty in the much talked about Gudiya murder case of Shimla.
It was the sentry who had revealed the incident of the death of youth Suraj due to beating by police personnel in the police station, the recording of which was saved in the mobile of DSP Manoj Joshi. This recording also became the strongest evidence in this case. There were more than 100 witnesses from both sides in the case, while the CBI had got 52 witnesses to testify in the court to prove the case.
Zaidi was in-charge of the SIT formed to investigate the Gudiya murder case
In fact, an SIT was formed under the leadership of Shimla IG Zahoor Haider Zaidi to investigate the Gudiya murder case. DSP Manoj Joshi, Station House Officer Sub Inspector Rajinder Singh, ASI Deep Chand Sharma, Head Constable Mohan Lal, Surat Singh, Rafi Mohammad and Constable Ranjit Sateta were also included in this SIT team.
This investigation team detained a Nepal resident youth Suraj and asked him to confess to the crime of raping and killing a minor girl in the lockup at night. But Suraj did not confess to this crime, due to which the police personnel beat him up all night. He suffered a lot of injuries on his body due to which he died in the lockup of the police station itself. Sub Inspector Rajinder Singh, ASI Deep Chand Sharma, Head Constable Mohan Lal, Surat Singh, Rafi Mohammad and Constable Ranjit Sateta had beaten Suraj.
DSP hid the news of Suraj’s death from senior officials
The sentry of Kotkhai police station informed DSP Manoj Joshi about Suraj’s death on phone at night. All the conversation of sentry Dinesh was recorded in DSP’s phone. But DSP did not inform the senior officials about this matter and tried to hush up the matter at his own level. Later when this matter reached CBI, a case was registered against all the members of SIT investigating this case. CBI recorded the statement of sentry Dinesh, after which the investigation team first seized the mobile of DSP Manoj Joshi. CBI investigation team got the recording from DSP’s mobile informing about the murder of sentry constable, which the investigation team presented in the court during the trial. Also, the testimony of sentry Dinesh also proved to be the most important.
This is how the court pronounced its verdict
The court acquitted accused number-9 SP (Dandub Wangiyal Negi alias D.W. Negi) of all the charges against him and cancelled his bail bond. Accused number one to eight have been convicted under IPC Act 120-B, 302 under 120-B, 330 under 120-B, 348 under 120-B, 195 under 120-B, 196 under 120-B, 218 under 120-B and 201 under 120-B.
Family members of the convicted police personnel started crying as soon as the court’s verdict came
All the accused named in this case had reached the court with their families. As soon as the accused were convicted on Saturday afternoon, there was a commotion outside the court. After this, additional police force was deployed outside the CBI court and the accused were taken into custody immediately after the court pronounced the verdict. After this, the family members of all the accused hugged them and started crying outside the court.
