Forensic experts to appear in court on Oct 9

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 19

A Special CBI Court today allowed the application filed by defence counsel for the summoning of forensic experts Dr HV Acharya and HR Shah in the court for their deposition in the Kotkhai custodial death case.

The matter will come up for hearing on October 9 when both witnesses will record their statement.

Dr Acharya and Shah are scientific officers at the Forensic Psychology Division of the Directorate of Forensic Science, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. They had conducted the narco-analysis on five persons, Ashish Chauhan, Rajinder, Subhash, Lokjan, and Deepak, who were suspects in the rape and murder of Gudiya at Kotkhai in Shimla district in 2017.

A Class X girl was found raped and murdered in Halaila forest in Kotkhai on July 4, 2017. A SIT, headed by the then IG Zahur H Zaidi, was set up to probe the case.

Later the case was handed over to the CBI as locals were protesting over alleged partial probe. However, before the CBI could start the investigation, Suraj, a Nepalese suspect, died in the police custody on July 18, 2017.

On August 29, 2017, the CBI arrested IG Zaidi, then Shimla SP DW Negi, and six other policemen in the custodial death case.

During an earlier hearing in the case on September 3, Sanam Negi, driver of Zaidi, stated that on July 11, 2017, he went to the residence of Zaidi and from there, they proceeded to Kotkhai and Hailala forest rest house. He left him there at 1.30 pm. On July 12, 2017, he took Zaidi to Kotkhai police station and remained there throughout day.