CHANDIGARH: A Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here convicted Himachal Pradesh Inspector General of Police Zahur Haider Zaidi and seven other police personnel in a case of custodial death of an accused in a gang rape and murder of a 16-year-old schoolgirl in Kotkhai of the hill state. The Additional District and Session Judge-cum-Special CBI Judge Alka Malik convicted all the eight accused including IGP Zahur Haider Zaidi, the then Deputy Superintendent of Police Manoj Joshi, Sub-Inspector Rajinder Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector Deep Chand Sharma, Mohan Lal, Surat Singh, Rafee Mohammad and Ranit Sateta. All the convicted were taken into police custody. However, the court acquitted the then Superintendent of Police D W Negi. The court will pronounce the quantum of the sentence on January 27. The prosecution examined over 52 witnesses in the case. On July 4, 2017, a 16-year-old girl had gone missing in Kotkhai near Shimla and her body was found from the forests two days later on July 6. The post-mortem report had confirmed rape and murder; later, a case was registered. On July 13, 2017, a Special Investigating Team (SIT) headed by Zaidi was constituted by the then state government after public and outcry, which arrested Suraj Singh and four other alleged accused.On the intervening night of July 18 and 19, Singh died in police custod,y as per the CBI; the state police allegedly tortured him to extract his confession. The medical board concluded in its report that the injuries on the body of the deceased were sustained by a blunt hard cylindrical object such as lathi, rod or baton. However, the Himachal Pradesh Police has then claimed that he was killed by another accused in a scuffle in the lock-up. The Himachal Pradesh High Court then handed over the investigations of both the cases to the CBI. After registering the case on July 22, 2017, the CBI had then arrested Zaidi and other police personnel. In 2019, the Supreme Court transferred this case of custodial death from Shimla to Chandigarh on a plea filed by the CBI for expeditious disposal of the case. 1994 batch IPS officer Zaidi was awarded the president’s police medal for meritorious service in 2010.
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