Chandigarh, Dec. 24 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday suspended the life term awarded to former inspector general of police Zahur Haider Zaidi in a custodial death case linked to 2017 Kotkhai rape-murder investigation. The bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur accepted Zaidi's application seeking suspension of sentence till 'pendency of the appeal'. Chinks in CBI story on Zaidi's involvement, a lack of motive and the accused officer not being present in police station at the time of custodial death were the major reasons noted by the bench leading to suspension of Zaidi's sentence. 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 Kotkhai case. The case was transferred to Chandigarh on high court orders. While allowing the application of the accused, the bench noted that there is no motive of the accused to have caused the death of the victim Suraj in custody at a time when he was not present in the police station. "Thus, in the entirety of these prima facie analyses coupled with the period of custody already undergone, which is more than five years, the applicant is entitled to suspension of sentence. It is clarified that the observations made are only for the purpose of deciding the present suspension application, and it shall not be construed as an expression of opinion at the time of deciding the final appeal," noted the bench....