CBI court dismisses police plea seeking prelim probe papers

CHANDIGARH : The special CBI court, Chandigarh, dismissed an application of the Punjab Police seeking documents of the preliminary probe into the case involving alleged abduction of Balwant Singh Multani in 1991 in which former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini is an accused.

The detailed order is awaited in the case.

Multani, who worked as a junior engineer with the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation (CITCO), was picked up by police after a terrorist attack on Saini, the then Chandigarh senior superintendent of police (SSP). Later, the police claimed that Multani, son of a former IAS officer, had escaped from their custody and was never traced.

On May 6 this year, a case was registered against Saini and seven others in Mohali on a complaint by Multani’s brother Palwinder Singh.

A month later, the police moved an application in the CBI court, Chandigarh, seeking documents of the preliminary probe as the case was initially investigated by the central agency in 2007.

In its reply, the CBI had said it keeps records only for five years.

On June 8, the police filed another application seeking the status report that the high court had returned to the investigating agency in 2016 which also had the documents with it.

Again, the CBI had refused to share the status report, which was returned by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to the agency in 2016, saying it was an “internal communication” between it and the court. It was also mentioned that the CBI was not able to trace the document.

ABSENCE OF KUMAR, CHIEF PRINCIPAL SECRETARY TO PUNJAB CM, FROM WORK HAS FUELLED SPECULATION OF HIS RESIGNATION