NEW DELHI, June 15:
The Supreme Court Tuesday refused to entertain a plea for restoration of bail to former Himachal Pradesh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Zahur Haider Zaidi in a custodial death case, saying that attempting to influencing a witness, who is a senior IPS officer, is a “very important” charge.
Zaidi, one of the accused in the case related to the custodial death of a man who was among those arrested on charge of gang-raping a minor school girl in Kotkhai in Shimla district in 2017, was granted bail on April 6, 2019 by the top court which later transferred the case from Shimla to Chandigarh.
The special trial court at Chandigarh, in January 2020, cancelled Zaidi’s bail after a prosecution witness and IPS officer Soumya Sambasivan alleged that she was being pressured by him to influence the trial.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court later refused to tinker with the trial court’s order of cancelling Zaidi’s bail.
“You have been the highest IPS officer (of the state). How can you give threat to another IPS officer… If you can attempt to influence an IPS officer then you can influence and tamper with other witnesses also,” said a vacation bench of justices Indira Banerjee and M R Shah.
Senior advocate V K Gupta, appearing for Zaidi, said all other accused are on bail and moreover, the former IGP has been in jail for over a year even after the IPS officer made the statement of being pressurised by him.
He said many witnesses are yet to be examined in the trial and moreover, the main charge against Zaidi was of destruction of evidence punishable with the maximum seven years of jail term.
“You may consider this a little factor, but as far as criminal trials are concerned, influencing a witness is a very important thing. We are not on the merits of the case, we are on how you did not follow the bail conditions imposed by the trial court,” the bench said.
Sensing the outcome, the lawyer for Zaidi withdrew the plea against cancellation of bail from the apex court.
The apex court, while transferring the trial from Shimla to Chandigarh on May 7, 2019, had taken note of the submission of the CBI that though the charge sheet was filed, the trial in the case “has not seen the light of the day” and hence the matter be transferred to other court for expeditious disposal.
Zaidi and seven others were arrested in the custodial death case of Suraj, who was found dead at the Kotkhai police station on July 18, 2017.
A 16-year-old girl had gone missing in Kotkhai on July 4, 2017 and her body was found from the Halaila forests two days later on July 6.
The post-mortem report had confirmed rape and murder and a case was registered.
Amid a huge public outcry in the state, a SIT headed by Zaidi was constituted by the then Virbhadra Singh-led Congress government.
The SIT arrested six persons, and after the custodial death of one of the accused Suraj, the high court had handed over the investigations of both the cases to the CBI.
The CBI had arrested Zaidi, DCP Joshi and other policemen in connection with the custodial death. (PTI)
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