Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrests former DGP Sumedh Saini

MOHALI: The Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrested former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini, who is already embroiled in murder and corruption cases, in a fresh case late on Wednesday evening from Mohali, confirmed a senior officer.
Sources said that soon after his arrest, Saini’s counsels for defence knocked the doors of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for bail in the night.
According to the vigilance bureau, Saini had arrived at its headquarters in Mohali around 8.10 pm to join the investigations in a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act, as directed by a local court. But it was not clear whether he was arrested in the same case or fresh charges were added against him.
Saini had earlier in the day approached the local court for a pre-arrest bail in anticipation of registration of fresh case against him, but the court directed him to first join the investigations.
The vigilance bureau had made an unsuccessful attempt to arrest Saini earlier when they raided his residence in Sector 20, Chandigarh, on August 2, as he managed to flee before the sleuths converged there.
On August 4, he had also withdrawn a plea from the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the corruption case. In the plea, he had requested the court to direct Punjab Police to take the court’s permission before arresting him in any other offence, if added in the FIR registered in the corruption case.
On August 12, the bench of Justice Avneesh Jhingan had granted interim bail to Saini, subject to his joining investigation within one week, in this case.
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau had registered the case under the Prevention of Corruption Act and criminal conspiracy against the former DGP, along with six others, including an executive engineer with the public works department and his father Surinderjit Singh Jaspal on August 2. The agency alleged that Saini had acquired Jaspal’s Sector-20 house in Chandigarh in a fraudulent deal with fake documents, using questionable financial transactions.
Earlier, hearing a disproportionate assets case, being probed by the vigilance bureau, a local court in Mohali issued orders to attach the property in question. The additional district and sessions judge PS Grewal on July 16 also directed Saini to deposit a monthly rent of Rs 2.5 lakh with the court till the case proceedings are not over.
Saini is also facing the charge of murdering Union territory CITCO junior engineer Balwant Singh Multani.