Abduction case: Ex-DGP Saini files for anticipatory bail; Punjab Police asked to produce records

Court will continue to hear application tomorrow

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Sumedh Saini. File photo

Mohali, May 8: A local court issued notice to Punjab Police on Friday asking them to submit complete records in a 29-year-old case of abduction of the son of a former IAS officer.

The notice came while the court was hearing an application for anticipatory bail that former Punjab director general of police Sumedh Singh Sainifiled two days after he and seven other policemen were booked for the abduction, torture and stage-managed elimination of Balwant Singh Multani.

Multani was the son of former IAS officer Darshan Singh Multani.

The court will now hear Saini’s anticipatory bail application on Saturday.

Saini and the others were booked under sections 364 (kidnapping or abduction in order to murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 344 (wrongful confinement), 330 (voluntarily causing hurt to exhort confession) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) on the basis of a complaint by Balwant Multani’s brother Palwinder Singh Multani on Wednesday evening.

Palwainder Singh Multani claims the cops abducted, tortured and killed his brother in police custody.

The victim Balwant Singh Multani was accused of carrying out an attack on Saini when he was the Chandigarh Senior Superintendent of Police on December 11, 1991. He was booked along with Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar—a convict in the Delhi bomb blast case—and two others, but the police later claimed Balwant escaped from the custody of Qadian (Gurdaspur) police.

The others booked along with Saini are DSP Baldev Singh, Sub-Inspectors Satbir Singh, Harsahai, Jagir Singh, Anoop Singh, and ASI Kuldeep Singh.

Of the other suspects, Baldev Singh has long since retired from the police force, while Satbir Singh died after his retirement.