Missing documents in Saini case: HC official summoned

A Delhi court has summoned an official of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to seek an explanation for the disappearance of some crucial documents relating to a high-profile kidnap and murder case from its record room. Punjab’s vigilance department director, SS Saini, is an accused in the case.

A Delhi court has summoned an official of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to seek an explanation for the disappearance of some crucial documents relating to a high-profile kidnap and murder case from its record room. Punjab’s vigilance department director, SS Saini, is an accused in the case.

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In response to a plea filed by the CBI, additional sessions judge Narinder Kumar of the Tis Hazari court asked an official of the HC’s registrar office to appear on Monday and inform how the documents went missing.

Businessman Vinod Kumar, his brother-in-law Ashok Kumar, and their driver Mukhtiyar Singh had been taken into custody on February 23, 1994, at a police station in Ludhiana. They later went missing.

The CBI claims that Saini (the then SSP of Ludhiana) nursed a grudge against Vinod and booked him in a case of economic offences. The case against Saini and three junior cops — MS Sandhu, Paramjit Singh and BC Tiwari — was registered on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The missing documents include affidavits filed by Vinod in the high court, making certain allegations against the police before his disappearance, and by some prosecution witnesses against Saini. All accused have been booked for kidnapping with the intention to murder, wrongful confinement and criminal conspiracy. Pleading innocence, they have challenged the charges in the Delhi High Court.