The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday submitted status report in HP High Court regarding custodial death of one of the accused in Gudiagangrape and murder case.

In the status report, the CBI informed the court that they had filed chargesheet against eight cops for the custodial death of one of the accused, who had died in police custody on the intervening night of 18-19 July due to police torture.

While a supplementary chargesheet against the then Superintendent of Police, D W Negi would be filed within four weeks time in the CBI court.

Two police officials, ASP BhajanDevNegi and DSP Traffic, Rattan Singh Negi have recorded their statements in the case and the CBI officials are now ascertaining whether their testimony could lead to unraveling the mystery behind Gudia case.

The CBI counsel AnshulBansal said the investigations in Gudia case has reached at an advanced stage and three teams are camping at Kotkhai to gather evidence.

The CBI would submit status report in Gudia case in the court on 20 December and the officials are confident of cracking the case by that time.

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, AshishChauhan, Rajender Singh alias Raju, Deepak, Subhash Singh Bisht, Suraj (who later killed in police custody) and Lokjan for the ghastly crime on 12 and 13 July.

On 19 July, the HP High Court had directed the CBI to probe into the Gudia case, along with custodial death case and on 29 August, eight members of Special Investigation Team (SIT) were arrested for custodial death.

The CBI had taken five accused in Gudia gangrape and murder case to Ahmedabad lab to conduct narco test to unravel the mystery behind the ghastly crime but no incriminating evidence was found against four accused (Rajender Singh, Deepak, Subhash Singh Bisht, and Lokjan).

The CBI had reportedly got hold of some voice recordings on the basis of which former Shimla SP, D W Negi was arrested.

The CBI is now working on the theory that the HP Police had tried to hush-up the Gudia case and had framed innocents to shield the real culprits. The investigating agency is now trying to track money trail as huge payout (around Rs 3-10 crore) is suspected to have been made to shield accused who, reportedly, belonged to influential families.