Punjab Police questions security personnel attached with ex-DGP Saini

An SIT of the Punjab Police has questioned 26 security personnel attached with former state DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, who is evading arrest in a 1991 disappearance case. A head constable-rank security personnel told the SIT that he saw the former state police chief at his Delhi residence on August 22.

An SIT of the Punjab Police has questioned 26 security personnel attached with former state DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, who is evading arrest in a 1991 disappearance case. The absconding former Punjab Director General of Police is a Z plus category protectee. Saini, whose whereabouts are still unknown, was booked in May in connection with the disappearance of Mohali resident Balwant Singh Multani, who worked as a junior engineer with Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation. During questioning, some of his security personnel shared Saini's last location with the special investigation team (SIT), officials said on Sunday. An inspector-rank security official told the investigators in a statement that he remained with Saini at his residence in Delhi from August 12 to 22, the official said. He was sent back to Punjab on August 22 by Saini. A head constable-rank security personnel told the SIT that he saw the former state police chief at his Delhi residence on August 22. He too was sent back and now deployed at Saini's Chandigarh residence. An assistant sub-inspector told the SIT that he last met Saini on August 12 at the latter's residence in Chandigarh, the officials said. Saini continues to remain elusive despite the SIT conducting raids at several places in Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi. A Mohali court on Saturday had issued an arrest warrant against him. Saini has moved the Supreme Court, seeking anticipatory bail in the case after the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday dismissed his plea. The high court also dismissed Saini's second petition seeking the quashing of the FIR or the transfer of investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation. A Mohali court had dismissed his bail plea on September 1. Police had last month added the murder charge in the FIR after two former Chandigarh Police personnel--Jagir Singh and Kuldeep Singh--turned approvers. They are co-accused in the case. The Punjab Police on September 3 had claimed that Saini had “absconded”, leaving behind his security cover. Saini, a 1982-batch IPS officer, was the youngest DGP in the country when he was appointed the state police chief in 2012. He was removed from the DGP post in 2015 after protests erupted following the desecration of religious texts in the state. Saini retired in 2018. Multani, a resident of Mohali, was picked by police after a terrorist attack on Saini, who was a senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh then. Later, police claimed that Multani, son of a former IAS officer, had escaped from the custody of the Qadian police in Gurdaspur.

Saini and six others were booked on the complaint of the victim's brother Palwinder Singh Multani, a resident of Jalandhar. The case was registered under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 330 (voluntarily causes hurt), 344 (wrongful confinement) and 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

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