Chandigarh, Sep 7 (PTI) The Punjab and Haryana High court on Monday reserved its verdict on an anticipatory bail plea of Punjab's former police chief Sumedh Singh Saini, facing arrest in a case of alleged abduction and murder of an engineer during Khalistani insurgency in the state in 1991.

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A bench of Justice Fatehdeep Singh also reserved its verdict on Saini's plea for either quashing the 1991 case of engineer Balwant Singh Multani's disappearance or transferring it to the CBI.

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Saini was booked in May in connection with the disappearance of Multani in 1991 when he was working as a junior engineer with Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation.

Justice Singh reserved his judgments on Saini's two pleas after hearing Special Public Prosecutor Sartej Singh Narula and the former Punjab DGP's counsel.

Opposing Saini's anticipatory bail plea, the prosecution argued that the former police chief's custodial interrogation was required to find out others involved in the illegal abduction, detention and torture of Multani and disposal of his body after his murder.

The arguments in the case took place for more than four hours, said Narula.

The matter will now be taken up on Tuesday, he added.

Saini had approached the high court after a Mohali court dismissed his bail plea in this case on September 1.

The Punjab police on September 3 had claimed that Saini had “absconded” while denying his wife's claims of withdrawal of his security cover.

Saini faces arrest as a Mohali court had on August 21 allowed the Punjab police to add a murder charge against him in the case.

This came after two former Chandigarh police personnel, former UT police Inspector Jagir Singh and former ASI Kuldeep Singh, who were also co-accused, turned approver in the disappearance case.

Multani, who was a resident of Mohali, was allegedly picked up by police after the terrorist attack on Saini, who was then the senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh, in 1991.

The police, however, had later claimed that Multani had escaped from the custody of Qadian police in Gurdaspur.

Saini and six others were booked on the complaint of Balwant Multani's brother, Palwinder Singh Multani, who is a resident of Jalandhar.

The case was registered against them under sections 364 (kidnapping or abduction for murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 344 (wrongful confinement), 330 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at Mataur police station in Mohali.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)