Chandigarh, Dec. 24 -- The Punjab and Haryana court on Tuesday suspended the life sentence of former Himachal Pradesh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Zahur Haider Zaidi in a custodial death case till the pendency of his appeal.

In January this year, the CBI court of then special judge Alka Malik had sentenced Zaidi along with seven other police officers to life imprisonment for the custodial death of an accused in the Gudiya gang rape and murder case of 2017. The case was transferred to Chandigarh on Supreme Court's orders.

While pronouncing its verdict on the case, the HC bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur noted a lack of motive and the accused officer not being present in police station at the time of the cu...