All eight police officials, including IG ZH Zaidi and DSP Manoj Joshi, arrested in connection with the custodial death of an accused in the "Gudia" rape and murder case, were today remanded to judicial custody till September20 by a court here.
Senior Civil Judge-cum-Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Ranjeet Singh Thakur rejected the CBI demand to extend the police remand of the accused by four days and sent them to judicial custody.
The accused -- Inspector General of Police Zaidi, Deputy Superintendent of Police Joshi, Station House Officer Rajender Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector Deep Chand, head constables Surat Singh, Mohan Singh and Rafiq and Constable Ranjit Singh -- were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on July 29 and remanded to police custody till September 4.
The police remand was subsequently extended till today (September 7) on a plea that certain recoveries were to be made.
The CBI had told the high court yesterday that the probe into the custodial death case of Suraj, one of the accused in the Kotkhai rape and murder case, was almost complete and the challan would be submitted in the competent court shortly.
The CBI had sought a four-day extension of the police custody of the accused, stating that the Flinders Technology Associates (FTA) card, which is related to forensic investigation, of deceased Suraj was yet to be recovered and investigations into financial transactions were underway.
The plea was opposed by the defense lawyer, who maintained that no recovery was being made by the probe agency as the arrested policemen were being taken to Delhi every time and that the physical presence of the accused was not required to inquire into the financial transactions.
The court said the physical presence of the accused would not be required at the next hearing and ordered the proceedings to be conducted through video-conferencing.
Initially, the police had claimed that Suraj was killed by one of his co-accused in the case, Raju, but after the CBI recorded the statement of the sentry before the magistrate, it found "vital clues" and placed the eight policemen under arrest.
Meanwhile, the five accused in the "Gudia" rape and murder case were taken to Ahmedabad for a narco (lie- detection) test, CBI sources said.
The high court had handed over the investigations into the rape and murder case of a minor girl at Kotkhai and the custodial death case to the CBI on July 19.
The central probe agency had filed two separate FIRs in connection with the cases on July 22 and constituted a special investigation team (SIT).
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