Chandigarh: The Punjab Police claimed Thursday that former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini has ‘absconded’. The Punjab Police also denied Sumedh Singh Saini’s wife’s claim that his security cover has been withdrawn.
Saini was booked in May in connection with the disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani. The latter was a junior engineer with Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation. He disappeared in 1991.
The Punjab Police categorically deny the withdrawal of the security of the former DGP. He has absconded, leaving his security detail behind, said a spokesperson of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Multani disappearance case.
Contrary to what has been claimed by Saini’s wife in a letter to Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta, there has been no change whatsoever in the security detail and the paraphernalia, including the security box and jammer vehicle provided to the former police chief, who is a ‘Z+’ category protectee of the state government, said the spokesperson.
The fact of the matter is that Saini seemed to have left his Chandigarh residence without Punjab Police personnel on his own, thus jeopardising his own security, said the spokesperson.
The letter written to the DGP by Saini’s wife, who also seemed to have disappeared from the residence here, appears to be an attempt to strengthen his claim for the grant of anticipatory bail in the Multani case, said the spokesperson.
The official said the Punjab government is fully alive to the security concerns involving Saini as per the present threat assessment and will not do anything to endanger his security or that of his family members.
A Mohali court Tuesday had dismissed the bail plea of Saini.
Multani had disappeared after a terrorist attack on the former DGP in Chandigarh in 1991. Saini filed Wednesday an anticipatory bail in the Punjab and Haryana High court in this matter.
The former DGP had earlier filed a petition in the High Court seeking either quashing of the case or transfer of the matter to the CBI. Saini faces arrest as the court had August 21 allowed the Punjab Police to add a murder charge against him in this case.
This came after two former Chandigarh police personnel, who are also co-accused, turned approvers in the case.
Multani, who was a resident of Mohali, was picked by police after the terrorist attack on Saini, who was the then senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh. Police had later claimed that Multani had escaped from the custody of the Qadian police in Gurdaspur.
Saini and six others were booked on the complaint of Multani’s brother Palwinder Singh Multani, who is a resident of Jalandhar.