A CBI court on Monday sentenced Himachal Inspector General of Police (IGP) and seven other policemen to life imprisonment in a 2017 custodial death case.


On January 18, the court had convicted IGP Zahur Haider Zaidi and seven other cops in the custodial death of an accused in the rape and murder case of a 16-year-old schoolgirl in Kotkhai in Shimla district in 2017.


Along with Zaidi, police officials including then DSP Manoj Joshi, Sub-Inspector Rajinder Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector Deep Chand Sharma, Head Constables Mohan Lal, Surat Singh and Rafee Mohammad and Constable Raneet Sateta were convicted in the case, according to PTI.


The court had convicted the accused under Sections 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 for the death of a suspect, Suraj Singh. The court had acquitted the then superintendent of police DW 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.


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. 


However, accused police officials registered an FIR against another arrested person Rajinder for the murder of Suraj.


A 16-year-old minor girl had gone missing in Kotkhai on July 4, 2017, and her body was found in the Halaila forests two days later on July 6. The postmortem report confirmed rape and murder and a case was registered.


A Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Zaidi was constituted by the then state government. The SIT arrested six persons including Suraj.


Following the death of accused in police custody, the Himachal Pradesh High Court handed over the investigations of both the cases to the CBI. The CBI then arrested Zaidi, a 1994-batch IPS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, DCP Joshi and other policemen in connection with the custodial death.


The CBI filed a charge sheet against the accused police officials after thorough investigation for criminal conspiracy, murder, fabrication of false evidence, destruction of evidence, torture in police custody for extracting confession, preparation of false record, etc.