Multani disappearance case hearing deferred

CHANDIGARH: A Chandigarh court deferred hearing in the 1991 case of alleged fake encounter and disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani in which former Punjab Director General of Police, (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini is named as an accused, to Tuesday.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel told the court on Monday that because of the lockdown in wake of coronavirus, only one-third of their staff is working; hence they were unable to find the status report submitted in Punjab and Haryana high court.

The CBI had earlier said that they do not possess any document regarding the case as it was weeded out as per the policy of not keeping records beyond five years. On June 8, however, the Punjab Police had questioned CBI on this, stating that it was in 2016 that the high court had returned the record to the agency.

The CBI’S response had come to an application filed by the state police, seeking record of the case. The plea for record was filed after a case was registered against Saini and seven others last month in Mohali on the complaint of Multani’s brother, Palwinder Singh Multani.

In 1991, Balwant Singh Multani, son of an IAS officer who worked as a junior engineer with Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation (CITCO), was allegedly picked up by two police officers after a terrorist attack on Saini, the then Chandigarh SSP, in which four policemen in his security were killed. The police later claimed that Multani had escaped from custody and his whereabouts, are not known.htc