Chandigarh, Aug 21 (PTI) The Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Saturday said it has decided to file a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking recall of its order for releasing former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini in a cheating and forgery case.

The bureau will file a separate petition, demanding recall of the high court's August 12 order granting interim anticipatory bail to Saini in a disproportionate assets case.

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The development comes two days after the high court ordered the release of the former Punjab DGP in the September 2020 cheating and forgery case related to a fraudulent land deal.

Saini was arrested by the state's Vigilance Bureau on Wednesday night in this case.

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Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi had held that Saini's arrest was illegal and in violation of earlier court orders.

The bureau will soon be moving the recall petitions in the two cases filed against Saini, a 1982-batch IPS officer, a spokesperson of the Vigilance Bureau said on Saturday.

According to the bureau, Saini had “failed” to “follow” the August 12 high court order in “letter and spirit” as he had chosen to visit the VB office “late in the evening on the last day of the seven-day period.”

While granting interim anticipatory bail to Saini in the disproportionate assets case on August 12, the court of Justice Avneesh Jhingan had asked him to join the investigation within a week.

Saini was apprehended on the night of August 18 when he arrived at the Vigilance Bureau headquarters in Mohali to join investigation in the disproportionate assets case.

"Saini intentionally exhausted the 7-day period during which he had to join the investigation in accordance with the interim order,” said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson said Saini arrived at the VB office “without” any prior information to the investigating officer (IO) and “intentionally” did not go to the office of the IO.

“In the circumstances, the Bureau thus decided to file a petition before the court seeking recall of the interim bail orders in the disproportionate assets case,” said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson further said sufficient ground was also made out in the cheating and forgery case related to fraudulent land deal for the state to seek recall of the high court order for releasing Saini from detention.

The bureau claimed that Saini was arrested in the case related to FIR number 11 (cheating and forgery case related to fraudulent land deal) in which he had no protection.

The spokesperson said the earlier protection orders of the HC of October 2018 and September 2020 do not apply to the cheating case related to fraudulent land deal which took place after Saini's retirement. Saini retired in 2018.

The high court on October 11, 2018 had held that Saini would be served a seven-day notice if any action was to be contemplated against him.

In the September 23, 2020 order, the court had extended the protection of the October 2018 order to any incident during Saini's entire service career.

The bureau had accused Saini of preparing a fake agreement with one Surinderjit Singh Jaspal for buying a house in Chandigarh's Sector 20 in order to prevent the attachment of this property by it. Saini was staying in that house as a tenant.

Earlier, the house was purchased by Jaspal's son Nimratdeep Singh, a PWD executive engineer, with “bribe” money received from WWICS Estates Private Ltd Director Davinder Singh Sandhu, the bureau claimed.

(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)