Chandigarh, August 3

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau last night booked former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini along with six others, including PWD XEN Nimratdeep Singh, under the Prevention of Corruption Act and conspiracy. The agency is probing Saini’s role in a fraudulent deal involving fake documents and questionable financial transactions linked to a Sector 20 house.

The FIR lodged by Vigilance Additional Director Varinder Singh Brar was based on a Vigilance inquiry, which established that Saini paid Rs 2.5 lakh rent for the first floor of the house to an excise officer’s family besides paying Rs 6.40 crore since October 2018.

Teams of the Vigilance Bureau tried to arrest Saini last night but could not succeed despite laying siege to the house for over four hours.

Saini, in the dock over controversial methods adopted during the fight against terrorism in Punjab, has been facing a series of cases since his retirement in 2018. The Mohali police had booked him last year for the alleged disappearance and murder of Balwant Singh Multani. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Punjab Police was also examining his role in opening of fire at protesters at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura in 2015, when he was the DGP.

The FIR said the Vigilance Bureau found these financial transactions during an inquiry against Nimratdeep Singh, Executive Engineer, Public Works Department (PWD). — TNS

‘Fraudulent’ house deal

• XEN Nimratdeep Singh and family owned 35 properties besides Rs20 cr from beyond known sources of income
• Saini was shown in records as tenant on the first floor of a two-storey house in Sector 20 owned by the XEN
• The probe found Saini transferred Rs6.40 cr to XEN’s father between 2018 and 2020 without any receipt
• Later, a fraudulent pact was prepared projecting the money was being paid for the purchase of the house, claimed VB