Ex-Punjab DGP Sumedh Saini Warned By Delhi Court For Attending Virtual Hearing Lying On Bed

A Delhi Court on Tuesday warned Former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini to be careful in the future after he showed up at the virtual hearing while lying on his bed.

Essentially, the Special Judge, CBI, Sanjeev Aggarwal was hearing a 1994 abduction case in which Sumedh Kumar Saini is an accused and for that purpose, he had joined the proceedings through VC (Cisco Webex App).

However, during the case proceedings, the Court observed that he had joined the VC proceedings/Court while lying on the bed. On being asked, he submitted that he is unwell and is down with a fever. However, no medical certificate in this regard had been furnished or filed on record by him.

To this, the Court warned him by observed thus:

"Accused no. 1 is, accordingly, warned to be careful in future with his demeanor and maintain the decorum of the court, while attending the proceedings/Court through VC."

It may be noted that Saini and three other policemen have been accused of kidnapping and murdering a Ludhiana man in the year 1994. Earlier, this case was being heard before a Court in Haryana, however, its trial was transferred to Delhi court on the direction of the Supreme Court.

The CBI had charge-sheeted Saini and the other accused policemen under various sections dealing with kidnapping or abducting in order to murder, criminal conspiracy, wrongful restraint, and wrongful confinement of the IPC.

Saini had appeared for the recording of statements of prosecution witnesses in the case, however, since a request for exemption had been received on behalf of the witness on medical grounds, the Court allowed the witness plea and listed the matter for further proceedings on January 15, 2022. 

Recently, in the aftermath of video clippings of one of the lawyers logged in the virtual court engaging in eroticism with a woman went viral, Madras High Court registered a suo motu criminal contempt proceedings.

About the incident that occurred in the court of Justice G.K Ilanthiraiyan, a Division Bench of Justice P.N. Prakash and Justice R. Hemalatha noted:

"This Court cannot afford to be a mute spectator and turn a Nelson's eye when such brazen vulgarity is publicly displayed amidst Court proceedings."

Recently, a semi-naked man had joined the video conference hearing before the Karnataka High Court when the court was hearing a batch of petitions questioning the legality of the SIT probe in the alleged sex CD scandal involving former State Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi.