A SPECIAL CBI court here on Monday sentenced Himachal Pradesh Inspector General of Police Zahur Haider Zaidi and seven other policemen to life imprisonment in a 2017 custodial death case. On January 18, the court of special CBI judge Alka Malik had convicted Zaidi and others in the case which pertains to the custodial death of an accused in the gang rape and murder of a minor girl in Kotkhai in Shimla district. The other convicts in the case included the then Deputy Superintendent of Police Manoj Joshi, then sub-inspector Rajinder Singh, then assistant SI Deep Chand Sharma, then head constables Mohan Lal, Surat Singh, Rafee Mohammad and then constable Ranjit Sateta. The court had acquitted the then Superintendent of Police D W Negi in the case. CBI public prosecutor Amit Jindal on Monday said the court sentenced the eight convicts to life imprisonment in the case.

 

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on the convicts, said Jindal. The accused were convicted under various sections, including 302 (murder) read with 120-B, 330 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession), 348 (wrongful confinement to extract confession), 195 (giving false evidence), 196 (using evidence known to be false), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 218 (public servant framing incorrect record) of the Indian Penal Code. 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.