Multani case: No relief for Sumedh Saini even from High Court, both petitions dismissed

Multani case: No relief for Sumedh Saini even from High Court, both petitions dismissed

Harshabab Sidhu
Nabaz-e-Punjab, Mohali, September 8:
The plight of former DGP Sumedh Saini, who is facing serious charges of mysterious disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani, son of a former IAS officer and junior engineer (JE), after abducting him, 29 years ago, has increased. The accused former DGP did not get any relief from the Punjab and Haryana High Court today.
Saini had recently approached High Court seeking anticipatory bail. The first judge, Justice Suveer Sehgal, had distanced himself from the former police chief’s case. As a result, a single bench of Justice Fatehdeep Singh yesterday heard the case of Saini’s anticipatory bail and withdrawal of the criminal case registered at Mohali’s Mataur police station from the Punjab Police and handed over to CBI or any other agency outside Punjab. The court today dismissed both the petitions of accused former DGP.
Both the cases were heard in the court for about 15 minutes. There was a heated debate between the lawyers of both the parties.
Saini had argued in his petition that the case is 29 years old. Earlier, the CBI had registered a case against him in this regard but the National Investigation Agency could not present any concrete evidence in the Supreme Court. As a result, the Supreme Court granted relief to Saini and dismissed the case against him from the outset. But now on the orders of the Punjab government, a case has been registered after 29 years on the basis of a false complaint of the victim’s family and they are being deliberately harassed and defamed. The case against him is purely politically motivated, he said in his petition.
Special Public Prosecutor Sartej Singh Narula and counsel for the victim’s family Pardeep Singh Virk opposed Saini’s bail application and told the court that there were serious allegations against Saini. Therefore, bail should not be granted to the accused under any circumstances. Narula said that Saini has to be taken into police custody and interrogated. Because after the case was registered, the accused did not cooperate with the police in the investigation. He told the court that the government had strong evidence that Multani had died in police custody. The hearing started at 11.15 am and lasted till 4.15 pm. Earlier, Saini’s application for anticipatory bail was cross-examined. Following this, Saini’s petition has been heard on whether to withdraw the probe from the Punjab Police and hand it over to the CBI or any other agency outside Punjab. The court, after hearing arguments from both the parties, reserved its order till Tuesday. However, the High Court today did not grant any temporary relief to Saini.
It may be recalled here that the Mohali court had recently rejected the anticipatory bail application of the former DGP in a major blow. The court believes that there are very serious allegations against him (Saini). In this case, police investigation and interrogation of the accused is very important due to which Saini’s bail cannot be accepted under any circumstances.