India News | Punjab's Ex-DGP Sumedh Saini Eludes Arrest
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, facing arrest in the 1991 Balwant Singh Multani disappearance case, continued to remain elusive on Wednesday even as the state police conducted multiple raids across three states and a Union territory.
Chandigarh, Sep 9 (PTI) Former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, facing arrest in the 1991 Balwant Singh Multani disappearance case, continued to remain elusive on Wednesday even as the state police conducted multiple raids across three states and a Union territory.
A Special Investigation Team of Punjab police carried out raids at residences of various associates of former state police chief at various places including Hoshiarpur, Mohali, Dabwali in Sirsa and Delhi, officials said on Wednesday.
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Saini, however, could not be located anywhere so far, they said, adding the raids are still on.
The police last month had carried out raids at Saini's residences in Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh.
Saini, whose whereabouts were still unknown, was booked in May in a 1991 case of alleged abduction and murder of Multani by police. At the time of his alleged abduction, Multani was working as a junior engineer with Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation.
The Punjab and Haryana High court on Tuesday had dismissed Saini's anticipatory bail plea in this matter.
“In the light of the seriousness of offences and there being every likelihood of the petitioner stifling fair investigations and trial, the custodial interrogation of the petitioner is very much essential to piece together this unfortunate incident and it necessitates dismissal of the instant bail application,” said the high court in its order on Tuesday, while dismissing Saini's anticipatory bail plea.
The high court's order was uploaded on its official portal on Wednesday.
The bench of Justice Fateh Deep Singh had also dismissed Saini's another petition which had sought quashing of the FIR (first information report) in the case or the transfer of investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Saini had approached the high court after his bail plea was dismissed by a Mohali court on September 1.
The police had last month added murder charge under section 302 of the IPC in the FIR in Multani disappearance case after two former Chandigarh police personnel, Inspector Jagir Singh and ASI Kuldeep Singh, who are also co-accused, turned approver in the case.
The Punjab police on September 3 had claimed that Saini had “absconded” after leaving behind his Z-plus security cover.
Saini had left his Chandigarh residence without Punjab Police security personnel and security vehicles, including a mobile telephony network jammer vehicle.
Multani, who was a resident of Mohali, was picked up by police after the terrorist attack on Saini, who was then the senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh, in 1991.
The police had later claimed that Multani had escaped from police 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 Jalandhar resident.
The case was registered against Saini and other police officials under sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 344 (wrongful confinement), 330 (voluntarily causes 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)