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Abduction case against ex-DGP Saini: Hearing on plea seeking transfer of case deferred till June 23
Mohali The district and sessions court of Mohali on Monday deferred till June 23 the hearing on an application seeking transfer of case against former Punjab DGP
Mohali The district and sessions court of Mohali on Monday deferred till June 23 the hearing on an application seeking transfer of case against former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini from the court of additional district and sessions judge (ADJ) Monika Goyal. The case pertains to the disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani, a Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation (CITCO) employee, in 1991. The case was registered against Saini on May 6 this year.
The application was filed by Multani’s brother Palwinder Singh and it came up for hearing in the court of district and sessions judge Rajinder Singh Rai.
The court also put Saini on notice while fixing June 23 as the next date of hearing. The sessions judge, meanwhile, restricted the ADJ’s court to pronounce order on the case till a decision is taken on the application seeking transfer of the case.
In his application for transfer of the case, Palwinder stated that he apprehended “unfair proceedings”. The application was moved after the ADJ’s court granted interim bail to Saini in anticipation of SIT adding Section 302 of the IPC to the earlier FIR.
Multani was allegedly picked up by two officers in 1991 after a terrorist attack on Saini, the then Chandigarh SSP, in which four policemen in his security posse were killed. The police later claimed that Multani had escaped from the custody of Qadian police.
A case was registered under Sections 364 (kidnapping or abduction in order to murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 344 (wrongful confinement), 330 (voluntarily causing hurt to exhort confession) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) in Mohali on May 6 on the basis of a complaint filed by Multani’s brother Palwinder.
Former DSP Baldev Singh Saini, inspector Satvir Singh, sub-inspectors Har Sahai Sharma, Jagir Singh and Anoop Singh and ASI Kuldip Singh were also named in the case.
