Supreme Court grants anticipatory bail to Sumedh Saini in 1991 Extrajudicial Murder Case

NEW DELHI, India—Finally, Ex-DGP Punjab Sumedh Saini has succeeded in securing an anticipatory bail from the Supreme Court of India in the 1991’s Balwant Singh Multani murder case. A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan has provided him relaxation to get released on bail by furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh with two sureties in the like amount, if he gets arrested.

However, the Supreme Court of India has also directed Sumedh Saini to surrender his passport and cooperate in the investigation of this three-decade-old case.

“We are of the opinion that the appellant (Saini) has made out a case for anticipatory bail,” said the SC bench.

On September 15, Justice Ashok Bhushan had also granted interim protection to Sumedh Saini from arrest in this case.

The Punjab government had opposed the plea of Sumedh Saini while citing that he can influence the ongoing investigation into this case.

After hearing arguments of Saini’s lawyer Mukul Rohatgi and Punjab government’s lawyer Siddharth Luthra, the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on November 17.

Case Background:

In 1991, the Chandigarh police had abducted Balwant Singh Multani from his Mohali based residence immediately after an attack on Sumedh Saini in Chandigarh. Four cops deployed in the security of Saini were killed in this attack, while he survived the attack.

After abducting Balwant Singh Multani, the cops had committed inhuman torture on him at the behest of Sumedh Saini.

“During the night of December 13, 1991, the cops of Sector-17 police station produced Balwant Singh Multani before Sumedh Saini. He was tortured so cruelly that he was left unable to stand. When he fell down, Sumedh Saini kicked him so cruelly that his eye came out. Next morning, he was lying unconscious in a pool of blood. Saini came and ordered the cops to put him inside a vehicle and they took him along with them,” an eyewitness Gursharan Kaur Mann had revealed in May this year.

In 2007, the Punjab & Haryana High Court had ordered a CBI inquiry into this case. The CBI had found enough evidence against Sumedh Saini after which an FIR was registered against him, along with three other cops namely SP (Operations) Baldev Singh Saini, SI Harsahai Sharma, and Jagir Singh on July 4, 2008.

Later, this FIR was quashed by the Supreme Court of India after Saini challenged the CBI inquiry and the High Court’s decision.

On May 6 this year, the Mohali police had registered a fresh FIR on the complaint of victim Balwant Singh Multani’s brother Palwinder Singh Multani against Sumedh Saini, SP (Operations) Baldev Singh Saini, SI Harsahai Sharma, SI Jagir Singh, SI Savir Singh, SI Anoop Singh, Kuldeep Singh and other unknown police cops.

Later, two cops Jagir Singh and Kuldip Singh had spilled the beans while turning approvers in this case due to which murder charges were added to this FIR.

On September 7, the Punjab & Haryana High had rejected Sumedh Saini’s plea seeking anticipatory bail after which he had moved to Supreme Court.

On September 15, SC had granted protection from arrest to Sumedh Saini after he sought an anticipatory bail plea.

Find below the full judgment of the Supreme Court bench: 

Sumedh_Saini_judgment

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