The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Chandigarh has convicted eight Himachal Pradesh police officials, including Inspector General of Police (IG) Zahur Zaidi, in the custodial death of Suraj, a Nepali national, during the investigation of the 2017 Kotkhai “Gudia” minor gang rape case.
The other convicted officials are then DSP Theog, Manoj Joshi, SI Rajinder Singh, ASI Deep Chand Sharma, HHC Mohan Lal, HHC Surat Singh, HC Rafee Mohammad, and Constable Ranit Sateta. However, former SP Shimla, D.W. Negi, was acquitted in the case. The court will announce the quantum of sentencing on January 27.
The gang rape and murder of the minor girl in Kotkhai had sparked massive public outrage in Shimla district, with widespread protests across the state demanding justice.
The victim went missing in Kotkhai on July 4, 2017, and her body was discovered in a forest two days later. A Special Investigating Team (SIT), led by IG Zahur Zaidi, was constituted to probe the case.
During the investigation, Suraj, who was in police custody as a suspect, died under suspicious circumstances. Initially, the police blamed another accused, Rajinder, for Suraj’s death. However, subsequent revelations pointed to alleged police torture as the cause of his death, leading to charges against Zaidi and other officials.
The Himachal Pradesh government later handed over the case to the CBI, which arrested Zaidi and other officials. According to the CBI, the accused officers destroyed crucial evidence related to Suraj’s death and submitted false and fabricated reports to the Director General of Police (DGP), falsely implicating Rajinder in the custodial killing.
