Ex-DGP takes on prosecution

Legal Correspondent

Ludhiana, December 17

The court of Sessions Judge Gurbir Singh today adjourned hearing in the Ludhiana City Centre case till January 5 after taking a counter-reply from former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini.

The court has fixed the next date for hearing arguments on Saini’s plea to hear him before passing any order on the closure report in the case in which Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had been given the clean chit by the Vigilance Bureau (VB).

Saini is learnt to have controverted the claims and allegations levelled by the Prosecution Department against him. Earlier, challenging Saini’s locus standi to file the plea, the department had termed him an “outsider” in the context of the present proceedings. The prosecution had asserted that whatever Saini did was in his official capacity, which ceased with the demitting of his office after his transfer from the VB.

Last year, the bureau had filed a closure report in the court of the Sessions Judge on the basis of further investigation carried out by it on the application of one of the accused, Chetan Gupta.