The Punjab police have booked former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and six others in connection with a case related to disappearance of a man, following a terrorist attack in Chandigarh in 1991.
The police said the case against Mr. Saini, in the matter of disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani, was filed on the basis of a fresh application by victim’s brother Palwinder Singh Multani.
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Based on the complaint, the case was registered under Sections 364 (kidnapping or abduction in order to murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 344 (wrongful confinement), 330 (voluntarily causing hurt to exhort confession) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) in Mohali on Wednesday. The fresh complaint was received by the police on Tuesday.
A police spokesperson said the complainant had cited Para 80 of the Supreme Court order of 7th December, 2011 that it was “open to the applicants who had filed the petitions under Section 482 Cr. PC to take recourse to fresh proceedings, if permissible in law”.
The complainant said in his complaint that the illegal acts of the accused persons “clearly disclose the commission of cognizable offences, as has also been established by the CBI during preliminary enquiry and therefore it’s the solemn duty of the police to lodge an FIR for the ghastly acts of the accused in terms of the specific directions of the Supreme Court in the case of ‘Lalitha Kumari v/s State of UP and others’.”
Mr. Palwinder Singh said Balwant was picked up from his then residence in Mohali on December 11, 1991 and was taken to the police station at Sec 17 Chandigarh under the orders of the then SSP Chandigarh, Sumedh Singh Saini. Despite all efforts to secure his release, the family failed to get him back..,” said the complainant, adding that it was after Mr. Saini’s retirement that they gathered the courage to resume their efforts to fight for justice.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh rejected former Mr. Saini’s allegation of political motivation in the registration of the FIR.
“There was no question of political interference,” said the Chief Minister, asserting that the law will take its own course.