E-Paper
High court judge recuses from hearing plea of former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini
Without citing any reason, the bench of justice Amol Rattan Singh observed since the petitioner has sought an early hearing, the matter be immediately put up before the Punjab and Haryana high court chief justice for assigning it to another bench
A Punjab and Haryana high court judge on Wednesday recused from hearing the plea of former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini seeking either quashing or transfer of the Balwant Singh Multani disappearance case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The plea was taken up by the bench of justice Amol Rattan Singh, which referred the matter to the high court chief justice. The judge has not recorded any reason for recusal but observed since the petitioner has sought an early date, the matter be immediately be put up before chief justice Ravi Shanker Jha for assigning it to another bench.
The additional district and sessions judge of Mohali had on Tuesday dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of the former DGP. His lawyers are in the process of filing an appeal against that order also.
Saini had approached the high court on August 19 when justice Manoj Bajaj raised questions with regard to the maintainability of the plea. The plea could not be taken up after that.
Saini was booked in May this year in connection with the disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani, a junior engineer with the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation (Citco).
Multani, a resident of Mohali, had been picked up by the police after a terrorist attack on Saini, the then senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh, in 1991.
Punjab Police on August 28 had conducted raids at Saini’s Chandigarh house and other locations but he could not be found. However, hours later on the same day, the Mohali court had extended Saini’s interim bail till the final orders on his anticipatory bail plea, which was subsequently dismissed on September 1.
Saini faces arrest as the court had on August 21 allowed Punjab Police to add a murder charge against him in this case after two former Chandigarh Police personnel, who were also co-accused in the case, turned approver.
The police had claimed that Multani escaped from custody at Qadian in Gurdaspur district. Saini and six others were booked on the complaint of Balwant Multani’s brother, Palwinder Singh, who is a resident of Jalandhar.
Initially, the case was registered against them under Sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 344 (wrongful confinement), 330 (voluntarily causes hurt) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at Mataur police station in Mohali.
In his plea, Saini says the first information report (FIR) is the result of malafide act against him for launching probes against Congress leaders and their relatives to unearth scams due to which he had become an eyesore for political parties. He demanded that the FIR be quashed or probe be transferred to the CBI.
