A CBI court on Tuesday remanded former Superintendent of Police, Shimla, DW Negi to judicial custody in alleged custodial death of one of the accused in Gudia gangrape and murder case.

Negi was arrested by CBI officials on 16 November after which he was taken to Delhi for questioning in custodial death case.

He was brought to Shimla on Monday and was produced CBI court which had extended his custody by one day.
The CBI was demanding five more days police remand on the grounds that his questioning might lead to some clues to help them in solving Gudia case.

The CBI sought Negi’s remand on the grounds that he was heading the district when the incident took place and his interrogations might provide some clues in solving the case.

The former SP was reportedly arrested on the basis of call recordings which allegedly contain conversations pertaining to hushing up the case between some members of Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Negi would now be produced before the court in 23 November along with other cops, including IG Zahur H Zaidi, DSP TheogManoj Joshi, the then SHO KotkhaiRajender Singh.

The cops were arrested for alleged custodial of one of the accused, Suraj, a Nepalese national, though the Police had claimed he was murdered by another accused Rajender Singh. The CBI officials are reportedly now working on the theory that the five accused, including Suraj who was killed in police custody, were framed by HP Police to save the real culprits and huge sum (around Rs 3-10 crore) might have been paid to hush-up the case.

The CBI officials are now probing money trail links if any, to nab the real culprits as the case appears to be clear cut case of alleged cover-up.

Gudia, a tenth standard girl from Kotkhai, had gone missing while returning home from school on 4 July. Her body was found in the woods on 6 July with multiple injuries on her body. Her autopsy had confirmed that she was gangraped and later, strangulated to death.

Following public outrage over ghastly crime, the government had constituted a SIT which had arrested six persons, one of whom was killed in police custody.

The case was later handed over to CBI for investigations and on 29 August, eight members of SIT including IG Zahur H Zaidi was arrested for custodial death.