HC suspends life term of ex-IG Zaidi in Kothkai custodial death

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday suspended the life sentence awarded to former IPS officer Zahur Haider Zaidi in a custodial death linked to the sensational Kotkhai rape and murder case of a minor.

The Bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur held that prima facie the CBI’s conspiracy narrative suffered from inherent contradictions, besides noting that Zaidi was not present at the police station when the custodial death occurred, and he had already undergone over five years of custody.

Zaidi, heading a special investigation team as an IGP in Himachal Pradesh, was convicted by the CBI court, Chandigarh, in January for criminal conspiracy and murder following the custodial death of Suraj Singh during investigation of the case.

Punches holes in CBI's conspiracy theory against Himachal ex-IG 

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday held that the CBI’s conspiracy narrative against former Himachal IG Zahur Haider Zaidi suffered from inherent contradictions. It noted that Zaidi was not present at the police station when the custodial death of the rape-murder accused took place

Gudiya (name given by locals) had left her house to attend school on July 7, 2017, but never returned. Her de-clothed body was found near Halaila forest following which a case was registered at the Kotkhai police station in Shimla district. The Supreme Court transferred the trial from the CBI Special Judge at Shimla to the CBI Special Judge at Chandigarh. Senior advocate RS Cheema, counsel AS Cheema, Sanjeev Kodan and Satish Sharma appeared before the high court on Zaidi’s behalf.

Central to the court’s view was a critical examination of the CBI’s allegation that a criminal conspiracy was hatched to extract confessions to justify claims made by Zaidi at a press conference on July 13, 2017, that the rape-and-murder case had been solved on the basis of “scientific evidence”.

The Bench observed: “This story itself raises a doubt: even if the investigators were able to extract confessions as desired, such confessions could not have been construed as scientific evidence.” The court added that confessions — legally inadmissible — could never serve the purpose, if the stated objective was to support claims of scientific evidence, thereby weakening the prosecution’s conspiracy theory at the threshold stage."

Another significant factor weighed by the court was the undisputed position that Zaidi was not present at the Kotkhai police station when victim Suraj Singh died in custody in the intervening night of July 18–19, 2017. The Bench observed that Zaidi was on pre-sanctioned leave from July 13 to July 17, 2017, to perform the rituals of his late father, and rejoined only thereafter. The CBI’s case was he reached the police station after rejoining and issued torture instructions to extract confessions. But the court asserted: “Certainly the accused was not present in the police station at that time and he cannot be attributed such injuries which were not caused in his presence.”

The Bench added that the statements of co-accused could not be relied upon, at the stage of suspension of sentence, being inadmissible unless falling within exceptions under the Evidence Act. “We are not commenting on the quality of evidence and its admissibility regarding statements of co-accused because that is undoubtedly an exercise to be done at the time of appeal, but for the purpose of deciding suspension of sentence, needless to say that the statement of a co-accused certainly is inadmissible unless made within the exceptions of the Indian Evidence Act which is not the present case”

Referring to the CBI’s claims that he did not act because he was part of the conspiracy hatched under his supervision, the Bench asserted: “If the idea was to extract a confession, it could not have been done by killing the person himself. If the person had died, the entire objective of the accused to extract a confession would fail.”

The Bench took note of the custody certificate showing that Zaidi had already undergone five years, two months and 14 days of custody. Allowing Zaidi’s application for suspension of sentence during the pendency of his criminal appeal, the Bench made it clear that its observations were only for the limited purpose of deciding the suspension plea and would not influence the final adjudication of the appeal.