Mohali court grants anticipatory bail to ex-DGP Sumedh Saini

A Mohali court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini in a 29-year-old disappearance case.

The case came up for hearing in the court of Additional District and Sessions judge Monika Goyal in Mohali.

"The court has allowed anticipatory bail after hearing our contentions," said APS Deol, the counsel for Saini.

Saini and six others had been booked in a case related to the disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani in 1991.

Deol said they had contended that the FIR lodged against Saini, a distinguished officer, after 29 years was not maintainable.

Registration of FIR after 29 years showed malafide on the part of the complainant, Deol said.

He said the Supreme Court in 2011 had already quashed the FIR registered by the CBI in this matter. Moreover, two prosecutions against one person are barred, the counsel contended.

Nothing was done by the complainant even after the Supreme Court verdict in 2011, Deol further argued.

Former Punjab Director General of Police Sumedh Saini along with six others were booked 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.

They were booked in connection with the disappearance of Multani, who was a junior engineer with the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation. The case was registered at the Mataur police station in Mohali after Multani's brother Palwinder Singh Multani lodged a complaint.

Balwant Multani, who was a resident of Mohali, was picked up by police after a bomb attack on Saini, who was then the senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh, in 1991. Multani was the son of retired IAS officer Darshan Singh Multani.