Supreme Court on Thursday has granted anticipatory bail to the former Director-General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini who was arrested in the Balwant Singh Multani’s disappearance case of 1991. The top court had provided Saini interim protection against arrest since September 15.
Supreme Court bench comprising of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice R Subhash Reddy, and Justice MR Shah set aside the order of Punjab and Haryana High Court and the trial court. The bench stated that if he is arrested under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, he should be released on a personal bond of one lakh rupees. The court has asked Saini to cooperate in the investigation and surrender his passport.
In 1991, Balwant Singh Multani was picked after Sumedh Singh Saini and three other policemen were attacked. The three policemen died while Saini was injured during the incident. The police had claimed that Multani escaped from custody. But recently murder charges were framed after two of the accused policemen turned approvers.
Punjab and Haryana HC had rejected the anticipatory bail petition of Sumedh Singh Saini on September 7.
Senior counsel appearing for DGP Singh contended that his client is a decorated officer and the matter is politically motivated. He also alleged that the police was after ex-DGP as “he had filed two charge sheets against the current Chief Minister of Punjab arraigning him as an accused and this is why they are after me”.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra representing the Punjab government stated that even the HC had observed that this man used to intimidate and said, “Court had noted that a person had succumbed to his injury after he was inhumanly treated by the applicant.”
