Ex-DGP Saini’s plea to come up in Dec

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 19

More than six months after a Ludhiana court dismissed an application filed by Punjab’s former Director-General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini for being heard in the Ludhiana City Centre case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today posted his petition in the matter to December 20 for hearing.

Saini had filed an application before the local court requesting it to hear him before taking a decision on the closure report filed by the Vigilance Bureau (VB). The VB has already given the clean chit to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and sought closure of the case.

The City Centre project had been envisaged to develop a multiplex, mall, leisure parks and other commercial establishments with a rooftop helipad on 25 acres in Ludhiana during Capt Amarinder Singh’s previous tenure as the CM. An FIR in the matter was registered in March 2007, after the Akali-BJP alliance came to power. But the VB filed the closure report giving clean chit to the CM and other accused.

As his petition filed through counsel Vinod S Bhardwaj came up for hearing before the high court today, Justice Shekher Dhawan observed: “In view of the written request circulated on behalf of counsel for the petitioner, adjourned to December 20”.