Chandigarh: Former Punjab director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini has been booked by the state police in a 29-year-old case involving the disappearance of an IAS officer’s son. Saini was the senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh at the time, and the man in question, Balwant Singh Multani, was suspected to be involved in an alleged assassination bid against the police officer.
During the days of the Khalistani militancy, Multani was arrested in the wake of an August 1991 bomb blast in Saini’s official car that led to the death of three of his aides. Saini himself survived the blast with injuries.
Multani was booked in December 1991 by Chandigarh police under the erstwhile Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.
When he subsequently disappeared, Multani, the son of a Punjab-cadre IAS officer, was shown as “escaped from police custody”.
The FIR against Saini is based on a complaint filed by Multani’s brother Palwinder Singh in Mohali Wednesday evening. Apart from Saini, seven other police personnel have been booked in the case along with an unknown person. The case has been registered under sections 364 (kidnap or abduction in order to murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), and 344 (wrongful confinement of 10 or more days), of the IPC, among others.
ThePrint tried to get in touch with Saini but there was no response on his mobile number.
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A controversial officer
According to the FIR, a copy of which is with ThePrint, Palwinder Singh has referred to a December 2015 cover story of Outlook magazine, where a former Punjab policeman, Gurmeet Singh alias Pinky, made purported disclosures about the conduct of state police during the days of the Khalistan militancy in Punjab.
Quoting Palwinder’s complaint, the FIR states that Pinky’s disclosure suggests Saini gruesomely tortured Multani in police custody. It was only after Saini’s retirement did the family gather the courage to again pursue the case against him, the complaint states.
According to Palwinder’s complaint, Multani was picked up from his phase 7 Mohali residence on 11 December 1991 and booked two days later under TADA.
The family has alleged that Multani was tortured to death but was shown as having escaped from custody from a police station in Qadian, Gurdaspur, a week after the case was registered against him.
It was due to the relentless efforts of Multani’s father Darshan Singh, who moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the matter, that the CBI registered a case against Saini in July 2008, the FIR states.
The CBI case was quashed by the Supreme Court on technical grounds in 2011 even as it gave the family the liberty to initiate fresh proceedings.
An IPS officer of the 1982 batch, Saini has had a controversial career. He served as Punjab DGP during the second term of Akali rule from 2012 to 2015.
However, before he could complete his term, Saini was removed by the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal over what was seen as police’s shoddy handling of the Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege protests. Two protesters had died in alleged police firing during the stir.
He retired in 2018 and lives in Chandigarh.
This is an updated version of the report
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