1991 Multani disappearance case: Court lets Pb police add murder charge in FIR against ex-DGP

"In order to maintain the sanctity of Article 21 of the Constitution as well as the order dated July 10, 2020, passed by Additional Sessions Judge, accused persons be served with three days' prior notice before their arrests," Judicial Magistrate Kaur said in her order. The court allowed the addition of murder charge in the FIR after two former Chandigarh police personnel, who are also co-accused, turned approver in the disappearance case.

A Mohali court on Friday allowed the Punjab Police to add murder charge against state's former police chief Sumedh Singh Saini in a case of the disappearance of a man after a terrorist attack on him in Chandigarh in 1991. While allowing the addition of section 302 of the IPC to an FIR registered in Mohal against Saini and three others on May 6 by a Special Investigation Team of the Punjab Police, Judicial Magistrate Rasveen Kaur also provided for a three-day prior notice to the accused before their arrests. "In order to maintain the sanctity of Article 21 of the Constitution as well as the order dated July 10, 2020, passed by Additional Sessions Judge, accused persons be served with three days' prior notice before their arrests," Judicial Magistrate Kaur said in her order.

The court allowed the addition of murder charge in the FIR after two former Chandigarh police personnel, who are also co-accused, turned approver in the disappearance case. Saini served as Punjab Director General of Police between March 2012 and October 2105.

The May 6 FIR against Saini was registered for his involvement in a case of the disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani, who was a junior engineer with Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation, in 1991. Multani, who was a resident of Mohali, was picked up by police team after a terrorist attack on Sani in 1991 during his tenure as the senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh.

The Central Bureau of Investigation too had started investigating the case under the directions of Punjab and Haryana high court in 2007 but the Supreme Court had quashed the probe in 2011 on an appeal from the state government Saini and others have been booked on the complaint of Balwant Multani's brother Palwinder Singh Multani, who is a resident of Jalandhar. The fresh case has been registered against them under sections 364 (abduction for murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offense), 344 (wrongful confinement), 330 (voluntarily causes hurt) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.