For an impartial enquiry into the sensational Kothkai minor gang rape case, the CBI on Wednesday decided to shift eight Himachal Pradesh police officials, including an IGP, to its headquarters in New Delhi for questioning in the custodial death of an accused in a rape case.

The eight police officials will be questioned by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the CBI which is probing the matter.

Inspector General of Himachal Pradesh Police Zahur Haidar Zaidi and seven other policemen were arrested by the CBI on Tuesday in connection with the custodial death of Suraj Singh, a 29-year-old labourer from Nepal.

Singh, who was a suspect in the rape-and-murder of a minor school girl in Kotkhai area of Shimla in early July, was among six people arrested by the local police. The Himachal Police had claimed that he was killed by a co-accused at the Kotkhai police station last month, triggering a massive public outrage.

The CBI, which was later handed over the probe into the case by the Himachal Pradesh High Court, questioned several people before arresting Zaidi, a 1994-batch IPS officer, the then IGP (South) Manoj Joshi, the then Deputy Superintendent of Police, and six other police officials.

The arrested accused were produced in the court in Shimla which sent them to CBI custody till September 4. The Class X student had gone missing on July 4 and her naked body was recovered from Haliala forests in Kotkhai on July 6.

Meanwhile, after the arrests of the police officers, the Himachal CPM on Wednesday demanded the sacking of State DGP Somesh Goel. The CPM said that Goel should be held accountable for death of Suraj, one of the accused in Kotkhai gang rape case.

Addressing media here, CPM leader Rakesh Singha, said that the arrest of 8 police officials in the matter has put serious questions over the conduct of higher authorities of Himachal Pradesh police. He said that DGP Goel must be held accountable for his silence over the custodial death of an accused for so long.

Singha demanded that the CBI should speed up the probe as the delay in investigation was providing more time to the real culprits to tamper with the evidence of the crime. He said the real culprits of Kotkhai gang rape were so powerful that they had been managing to evade the law even after a lapse of more than a month.

He said that the CBI was required to complete the probe in 90 days but this fact can’t be forgotten that the delay in investigation was enhancing the threat to the vital links and witnesses of the case.