Ex-Punjab DGP Sumedh Saini fails to appear before SIT

Former Punjab police chief Sumedh Singh Saini on Wednesday failed to appear before the SIT to join investigation in the 1991 Balwant Singh Multani disappearance case.

Saini had earlier been asked to report to the Mataur police station in Mohali to join the investigation.

“He did not turn up,” said Special Public Prosecutor Satrej Singh Narula.

A Special Investigation Team of the Punjab police received a message on Wednesday morning from Saini's counsel that he has pain in his thighs and feeling giddiness due to travelling.

The accompanying medical certificate, however, did not bear his full name, address, signature and even the name of any hospital or its address said Narula.

Saini had appeared before the SIT on September 28 and was quizzed over the case for almost six hours.

Narula on Monday had said Saini had remained evasive to the SIT's relevant questions.

The SIT is led by Superintendent of Police (Detective) Harmandeep Singh Hans while Deputy Superintendent of Police (Detective) Bikramjit Singh Brar, DSP Jaswinder Singh Tiwana and Inspector Rajeev Kumar are its members.

Saini was booked in May in the case involving Multani's disappearance in 1991 when he was working as a junior engineer with Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation.

The Supreme Court has granted him interim protection from the arrest in the case.

The police had last month added murder charge under section 302 of the IPC in the FIR in the Multani disappearance case after two former Chandigarh police personnel -- former UT police Inspector Jagir Singh and former ASI Kuldeep Singh -- who are also co-accused, turned approver.

Saini, a 1982-batch IPS officer, was the youngest DGP in the country when he was appointed the Punjab police chief in 2012. He was removed from the DGP's post in 2015 after protests erupted following incidents involving sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib. Saini retired in 2018.

Multani, a Mohali resident, had been picked up by the police after a terrorist attack in 1991 on Saini, who was then the senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh.

The police, however, had later claimed that Multani, son of a former IAS officer, had escaped from the custody of Qadian police in Gurdaspur.

Saini and six others were booked on the complaint of Balwant Multani's brother, Palwinder Singh Multani, who is a resident of Jalandhar.

The case was registered against the seven under sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 344 (wrongful confinement), 330 (voluntarily causes hurt) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at Mataur police station in Mohali.