What is the 30-year case against former Punjab DGP Sumedh Saini?

The Delhi HC will rehear the case in which a group of policemen, including Saini (then an SSP), are accused of abducting and murdering three men in Ludhiana

A triple-murder case, in which former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Saini was named as an accused, is set to be re-heard by the Delhi high court (HC), 30 years after the crime was first committed. The case has been heard by the Punjab and Haryana HC as well as district court judges in Delhi. One of the deceased’s family members also wrote to the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud last month asking that justice be done, the Indian Express reported.

Former Punjab police chief Sumedh Singh Saini(HT_PRINT)

Who is Sumedh Saini, and why is he being tried for not one, but three murders? Here’s a look at what the case is about:

What is the Ludhiana triple murder case?

On March 15, 1994, Ludhiana-based businessman Vinod Kumar, his brother-in-law Ashok Kumar and their driver Mukhtiar Singh were abducted and illegally detained by a police party. The families of the victims alleged that the trio was eliminated though the bodies have never been recovered. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that started probing the case in 1994 found that the three men were murdered at the behest of Saini who allegedly hatched the conspiracy in connivance with other accused policemen Sukh Mohinder Singh Sandhu, Paramjit Singh and Balbir Chand Tiwari to settle a personal score against the owners of Saini Motors, an automobile dealership in Ludhiana. Vinod and Ashok were chief financiers to Saini Motors. While Vinod and Mukhtiyar were picked up from the parking lot of the Punjab and Haryana high court on that day, Ashok was allegedly abducted from Ludhiana.

As per the allegation, Vinod Kumar disappeared from the custody of the Ludhiana Kotwali station along with his brother-in-law Ashok Kumar and driver Mukhtiyar Singh after being detained between February 23 and March 3, 1994. The CBI charges claimed that then-SSP Saini wanted Vinod and Ashok Kumar to implicate their family business, Saini Motors, in illegal activities. SSP Saini was allegedly in a feud with Narender and Meenakshi Saini, the owners of Saini Motors.

When was this case registered against Saini?

The CBI registered the case against Saini and others on April 18, 1994, on the orders of the HC and it was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court in 2004 after a petition by Vinod’s brother Ashish Kumar. Saini was charge-sheeted along with others in a case of abduction, wrongful confinement and criminal conspiracy. The CBI filed the chargesheet in May 2000.

A judge threatened in the high-profile case

In a judgement delivered on December 22, 1995, Justice VK Jhanji of Punjab and Haryana HC had quoted several occasions wherein he alleged attempts were made to intimidate him. While listening to Saini’s petition to transfer the case from his court, the judge stated that he had received anonymous telephone calls asking him to stay away from this case.

“I have brought all these facts to the notice of the Chief Justice in the presence of my brother judges. The modus operandi thus had been to create fear psychosis. The present application has come to be filed only when this court did not deter from proceeding with the case,” Jhanji wrote in response to Saini’s plea.

Several judges have heard the case

In 2009, a Delhi high court judge pulled out of hearing the case after allegations by Vinod Kumar’s mother (now dead) that the judge and Saini were “presumably good friends”. Amar Kaur, who was then 91 years old, wrote to the Delhi HC judge, Justice Sunil Gaur, that he should recuse himself as he was “friends” with Saini. On December 13, 2017, Amar Kaur breathed her last at 103 still waiting for justice in the abduction and death of her son. In 2019, a CBI Superintendent of Police, Dharampal Singh, who probed the case against Saini turned hostile and refused to support the prosecution case.

What do we know of Sumedh Saini?

A 1982-batch IPS officer, Sumedh Saini retired as director general of police (DGP) on June 30, 2018, after 36 years of service. During his active years, he was famous as a daredevil cop and a hero to many for his role in wiping out terrorism from Punjab. He is also alleged to have indulged in gross human rights violations and torture during this time.

In the years when K P S Gill headed the state police force, Saini was given a free hand. Punjab still has a large section of people who are fans of his “iron hand”. Despite the controversies that surrounded him, Saini was the blue-eyed boy of Shiromani Akali Dal president and former deputy chief minister of Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal and was elevated to head the state police force in 2012.

In the Badals’ previous tenure, between 2007-2012, Saini was appointed as the chief director of the state’s Vigilance Bureau, during which time, he registered many high-profile cases including a scam involving former CM Captain Amarinder Singh (who was with the Congress party at the time). Saini was removed from the post of the DGP of Punjab in October 2015 when after Panthic anger against the Akali government over the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib broke out, and two anti-sacrilege protestors died in police firing in Faridkot. Saini was also the subject of an assassination attempt. In August 1991, when Saini was senior superintendent of police (SSP) in Chandigarh, a powerful bomb exploded in the official car in which Saini was travelling back home after work. The main accused, Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar, was later arrested and convicted for masterminding the attack.