Multani case: SIT conducts raids in Himachal, Delhi to arrest ex-DGP Sumedh Saini

Chandigarh, September 10

The Special Investigation Team of Punjab Police on Thursday carried out raids in Himachal Pradesh and Delhi to nab former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini who is facing arrest in the 1991 Balwant Singh Multani disappearance case.

However, the former Director-General of Police remained elusive.

The officials on Wednesday had said they had carried out raids at residences of the associates of Saini at various places, including Hoshiarpur and Mohali in Punjab, Dabwali and Sirsa in Haryana, and Delhi.

Saini, whose whereabouts were still unknown, was booked in May in connection with the disappearance of Multani in 1991 when he was working as a junior engineer with Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday had dismissed Saini’s anticipatory bail plea in this matter.

The bench of Justice Fateh Deep Singh had also dismissed Saini’s second petition that sought quashing of the FIR (first information report) in the case or the transfer of investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Saini had approached the high court after his bail plea was dismissed by a Mohali court on September 1.

The police had last month added murder charge under Section 302 of the IPC in the FIR in Multani’s 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 in the disappearance case.

On September 3, the Punjab Police claimed that Saini had “absconded” while leaving behind the Z plus security allotted to him.

Saini had left his Chandigarh residence without Punjab Police security personnel and security vehicles, including a jammer vehicle.

Multani, a resident of Mohali, was picked up by police after the terrorist attack on Saini, who was then the senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh, in 1991. However, the police had later claimed that Multani had escaped from police 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 them 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. PTI

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