Supreme Court Dismisses Ex-Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini's Plea To Quash FIR In Multani Murder Case

The Supreme Court today (September 10) dismissed a special leave petition filed by former Director General of Police, Punjab, Sumeth Singh Saini challenging the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court refusing to quash an F.I.R. lodged against him in the Multani murder case.

In 1991, during the Punjab militancy, one Balwant Singh Multani (hereinafter referred to as 'the deceased') was killed allegedly due to custodial torture.

Allegedly, during the tenure, Saini as SSP, Chandigarh on the early morning of December 11, 1991, the police of Chandigarh swooped upon the residence of the deceased and took him away forcibly and illegally without assigning any reason. Allegedly, it was during their illegal detention, that the deceased (Multani) was given third-degree treatment by the accused.

Saini is accused under sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 201 (causing the disappearance of evidence of offence), 344 (wrongful confinement), 330 (voluntarily causes hurt), 219 and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy). Section 302(murder) IPC was subsequently added after the other two accused-Jagir Singh and Kuldip Singh- turned approver. 

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohagti, appearing for Saini, apprised the Court that the case was registered against him because he was involved in the investigation cases against the then-Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh.

As per Rohagti's arguments, a similar FIR on the same incident was quashed by the Supreme Court in 2011. However, the liberty was granted to the deceased's father to file fresh proceedings. He stated that this liberty only extended to the deceased's father and not to his brother, who lodged an FIR after 9 years of the 2011 judgment.

Rohagti submitted that the accused was being hounded because of political vendetta, which could be also seen from the fact that the chargesheet in this case was filed one day after the Supreme Court granted anticipatory bail.

Without going into the merits of the FIR, the court considered that the chargesheet had been filed and therefore, that it was not inclined to interfere in the ongoing proceedings. The Court, however, has given liberty to the petitioner to approach the High Court challenging the chargesheet and has stated that the findings of the High Court in the impugned judgment will not come in the way of the challenge. 

On September 8, 2020, the Delhi High Court denied anticipatory bail to the former DGP.  

Case details: SUMEDH SINGH SAINI v. THE STATE OF PUNJAB AND ORS, Diary No. 19730-2020

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