Former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini finally appears before SIT in Mohali

Former Punjab director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini finally appeared before the special investigation team (SIT) in Mohali on Monday in connection with the 29-year-old case of the disappearance and murder of a junior engineer, Balwant Singh Multani.

Saini walked in alone around 11am as the SIT waited for him at the Mataur police station in Mohali. The police had pasted summons outside his house in Sector 20, Chandigarh.

The Supreme Court recently granted Saini interim protection from arrest in the case.

Multani, the junior engineer with Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation (Citco), was allegedly picked up by the police in December 1991 after a terror attack on Saini that left three policemen dead. Saini was injured in the attack.

Trouble started for the former DGP when two co-accused policemen turned approvers and recorded statements against Saini, corroborating the series of incidents which proved that Multani was tortured and eliminated at the ex-DGP’s behest.

Thereafter, an independent witness who is a resident of Sector 33, Chandigarh, advocate GK Mann, and another independent witness, who is a resident of Kharar, deposed against Saini, turning approvers.

Saini had evaded Punjab Police raids and had not been at his Chandigarh residence since August 12.