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Former Punjab top cop booked in 1991 abduction case
Former Punjab police chief Sumedh Singh Saini accused Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh of trying to settle a score with him.
Former Punjab police chief Sumedh Singh Saini and seven other ex-policemen have been booked for the alleged enforced disappearance of a junior engineer in 1991.
Saini was Chandigarh’s senior police superintendent when Balwant Singh Multani, the junior engineer, was picked up following a terrorist attack on Saini which left four policemen dead.
“An FIR [First Information Report] was registered against Saini and others on the complaint of Jalandhar-resident and Multani’s brother Palwinder Singh,” a Punjab police officer said.
In the fresh complaint, Palwinder Singh cited Saini’s influence and said they could not get justice because of it.
“After retirement of Saini [in June 2018], our family again got some courage to resume our efforts to fight for justice,” Palwinder Singh said in his complaint.
The Central Bureau of Investigation initiated a probe against Saini over the disappearance of Multani, who was a resident of Mohali near Chandigarh, in 2007 on Punjab and Haryana high court’s directions. The Supreme Court quashed the probe in 2011 after then Shiromani Akali Dal-led Punjab government challenged the high court order.
On Thursday, a Punjab police spokesperson said the apex court had also given the family the liberty to take recourse to fresh proceedings.
Saini accused Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh of trying to settle a score with him. “What comments are required when a chief minister joins hands with anti-national elements to settle a personal score for having him booked for corruption?” said Saini.
Saini challenged a state vigilance bureau’s closure report in the Ludhiana City Centre scam in 2018 in which Amarinder Singh was an accused.
Amarinder Singh termed Saini’s allegations as baseless. “There is no question of political interference and the law will take its own course.”
