Suspended Shopian cops arrested

SRINAGAR: Hours after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court's direction, all the four suspended police officers including the then Shopian SP Javid Iqbal Mattoo were arrested by the SIT probing the alleged rape and murder of two women in the South Kashmir town.

Besides Matoo, the then DSP Rohit Baskotra, former SHO Inspector Shakeel Ahmad and former Sub-Inspector Gazi Abdul Karim allegedly responsible for destructing evidence have been arrested, official sources said.

The division bench of Jammu and Kashmir High Court today directed the SIT to arrest and produce the four suspended police officers in the court and get their blood samples to help prepare their DNA, saying it will speed up probe.

The four officers were placed under suspension a day after the one-man judicial commission probing the double murder and rape submitted its interm report on June 21.