Satya prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 15
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted provisional protection from arrest to former Punjab Deputy General Sumedh Singh Saini in the 1991 murder case of Balwant Singh Multani.
“This case is from 1991. After 30 years, what is the rush to arrest him … We will give him time to present an answer,” said a bench of three judges led by Judge Ashok Bhushan, adding that he would not be arrested until new orders.
However, the high court asked Saini to cooperate with the Punjab police in the investigation.
Saini had challenged the September 7 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by dismissing his early bail bond in the Multani kidnapping and murder case.
The court issued a notice to the Punjab government regarding Saini’s petition requesting advance bond in the case, asking it to respond within three weeks. Thereafter, Saini had a week to present his rejoinder.
The case is likely to go to a new hearing after four weeks.
Multani, a junior engineer with the Chandigarh Tourism and Industrial Corporation, was allegedly detained by the police in December 1991 after a terrorist attack against Saini that left three policemen dead. Saini was injured in the attack.
Saini’s troubles began in May this year when he was booked into a police station in Mohali along with six other people for the alleged kidnapping of Multani in 1991. The murder charge was added in August after two of the accused police officers They spilled the beans.
On behalf of Saini, lead attorney Mukul Rohatgi stated that it was a serious matter of a decorated police officer being harassed.
“This is a very serious matter, he is a decorated officer … an outstanding officer … a dedicated and hardworking officer who had suffered gunshot wounds,” Rohatgi told the court.
“I (Saini) was the then SSP, when I was targeted by terrorists,” Rohatgi said, adding that “Multani was a PO (accused of criminal) in one case.”
He said that the state government was behind Saini because he had presented two indictments in which Captain Amarinder of Punjab CM was charged. “That’s why they persecute me,” he said.
Narrating the sequence of events since 1991, Rohatgi said that the FIR had been searched against Saini in a bad faith manner.
On behalf of Punjab, leading defender Siddharth Luthra tried to counter Rohatgi’s arguments, saying that the high court had found that Saini used to intimidate others.
The higher court also noted that one person had succumbed to his injuries after Saini treated him inhumanely, Luthra claimed.
“Even after retirement, the defendant still has the audacity and power to have some files under his control. How can this be allowed?” Luthra said.
After the FIR search, the approvers’ statements were recorded and witnesses at the police station stated for the first time that the photo of Multani released to have escaped from prison was not Multani’s at all, Luthra said.
Saini is also facing trial at an IWC Special Court in Delhi along with three others for the alleged kidnapping of car businessman Vinod Kumar, his brother-in-law Ashok Kumar and his driver Mukhtiyar Singh. While Vinod and Mukhtiyar were detained by the police in the Punjab and Haryana High Court parking lot on March 15, 1994, Ashok was allegedly abducted from Ludhiana on the same day.
The case was registered against Saini and others by the IWC by order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on March 24, 1994. The Supreme Court transferred it to Delhi in 2004 after Vinod’s mother Amar Kaur expressed her fear. Saini being a senior IPS officer could influence witnesses.
The CBI has sought the cancellation of the personal appearance waiver granted to it in the case.
