UD Minister of HP leads a candle march in Dharamshala to support speedy justice in Kotkhai rape, murder case

Dharamshala, July 21, 2017: Dharamshala Congress committee today organised a candle march in support of the fast justice to the family of the victim of rape and murder in the Kotkhai area of the upper Shimla during the first week of this month.
The march, which was lead by the local MLA/ UD minster of HP Government Mr.Sudhir Sharma, was attended by a large number of public.
A memorandum was submitted to the deputy commissioner to be sent to President of India requesting a fast inquiry by central agency. Minister said, “BJP is politicizing this sensitive issue by misleading the public of the state.”
On July 4, a 16-year-old school girl was raped and murder in Kothkai. The body was found after two days in a jungle in the area. Police arrested six persons in the case. However, the irate residents refused to accept police version that the case was solved with the arrest of the six, forcing the Himachal Pradesh Government to order a CBI probe into the case.
Mob became out of control in Kotkhai on July 19 following alleged murder of a suspect lodged in jail by another co-accused in the Kotkhai rape-cum-murder case, mob ransacked Kotkhai police station and subsequently set it on fire during a violent protest that started on Wednesday morning.
The main suspect, Rajender Singh (32), alias Raju (driver of a pick-up van), in the rape and murder of a minor, allegedly killed another suspect in the case, Suraj Singh (29), by smashing his head on the floor in Kotkhai jail late Tuesday night, according to jail authorities.

Raju, along with three other accused, was subsequently shifted to an undisclosed location by the police after the incident around midnight.
The body of Suraj, killed by Raju, has been sent to Indira Gandhi Medical College for post-mortem from Kotkhai.
Suraj, a Nepalese labourer, was one of the suspects in the case.
Meanwhile, CM VirBhadra Singh wrote a letter to PM to conduct a CBI inquiry in to the matter.
The agitation later reached Shimla, when youth protested at the historic Ridge area, and spread to almost every area of the state from Thursday on wards.