Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS) The Supreme Court Wednesday quashed a Punjab and Haryana High Court order directing a CBI probe into the alleged involvement of a senior IPS officer of Punjab in the killings of Balwant Singh Bhullar and Balwant Singh Multani during the period of Sikh insurgency in the state.

An apex court bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice A.K. Patnaik said the high court order suffered from “bias” and was “legally impermissible”.

Holding that the high court was swayed away from the process of law, the apex court also quashed the first information report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case.

Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sumedh Singh Saini, who is an additional director general of police and is presently the chief director of vigilance, had been in the dock for the alleged kidnapping and killing of Bhullar and Multani.

The two had been allegedly picked up by police teams after an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Saini in Chandigarh in August 1991.

The assassination attempt was allegedly masterminded by Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, Balwant Bhullar’s son and Multani’s friend. Devinder Bhullar is on death row for his involvement in an attack on the then youth Congress chief M.S. Bitta in Delhi in 1993.

Directing that all the proceedings consequent to the high court order are null and void, the apex court quashed the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case in July 2008.

Saini, a controversial but daring Punjab IPS officer who was actively involved in counter-terrorism operations in Punjab in 1980s and early 1990s under supercop K.P.S. Gill, was booked with three other Chandigarh police officials and other unidentified officials by the CBI on charges of abduction with the intent to murder.

The whereabouts of Multani, who was picked up at the behest of Saini after an assassination attempt on the police officer in Chandigarh Aug 29, 1991, remain a mystery. Most people though believe that Multani was allegedly eliminated by Saini and others.

Others booked by the CBI by name include Chandigarh police officials Baldev Singh, Harsahai Sharma and Jagir Singh.

Saini was then the senior superintendent of police in the Chandigarh police when a powerful bomb blast took place on the route on which his high-security motorcade was moving in Sector 17.

He survived the deadly blast that killed three other security personnel accompanying him.

Multani was picked up by police teams led by Saini in December 1991.

Multani, an engineer by profession and son of a Punjab bureaucrat, was tortured by the police after being booked under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA).

The police later said that Multani escaped from custody in Qadian town in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, 250 km from here.

His father had approached the high court, seeking action against the police officers for allegedly eliminating his son.

Saini and others were charged with abduction with the intent to murder, criminal conspiracy, fabricating false evidence, wrongful confinement and voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession.