Chandigarh: In a major relief in the high-profile 2017 Gudiya rape and murder case from Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla district, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday suspended the life imprisonment sentence of former Inspector General of Police Zahoor Haider Zaidi.
Zaidi had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chandigarh-based CBI court in connection with the custodial death of Suraj, one of the accused in the Gudiya rape and murder case. The High Court’s order provides interim relief to the former senior IPS officer while the appeal against his conviction remains pending.
Earlier this year, on January 27, the CBI court had convicted Zaidi along with eight other police officers and personnel, holding them guilty in the custodial killing of Suraj at the Kotkhai police station. However, the then Superintendent of Police, D.W. Negi, who was also named in the case, was acquitted due to insufficient evidence and lack of corroborative witness testimony.
Apart from Zaidi, those convicted by the CBI court included then Deputy Superintendent of Police Manoj Joshi, Sub-Inspector Rajinder Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector Deep Chand Sharma, Head Constables Mohan Lal, Surat Singh and Rafi Mohammad, and Constable Ranjit Sateta.
Suraj had been arrested in connection with the rape and murder of a minor girl, popularly known as the Gudiya case, which had shaken the state in 2017. He died in police custody at the Kotkhai police station just 14 days after the crime. At the time, police officials claimed that Suraj was assaulted by another accused, a version that was later contested during investigations.
The custodial death sparked widespread outrage across Himachal Pradesh, leading to violent protests. Angry mobs torched the Kotkhai police station and several vehicles, intensifying public pressure and ultimately resulting in the case being handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The High Court’s decision to suspend Zaidi’s sentence marks a significant turn in the long-running legal battle linked to one of the most controversial criminal cases in the region’s recent history.
