Sumedh Singh Saini -the blue-eyed boy of the In­dian state for many decades, the man who ran the Pun­jab po­lice op­er­a­tions to his whims and fan­cies in an un­de­mo­c­ra­tic, au­to­cratic, un­law­ful and il­le­gal man­ner with guar­an­teed im­punity from var­i­ous gov­ern­ments, is now feel­ing the heat with a po­lice case of ab­duc­tion hav­ing been filed against him yes­ter­day in Mo­hali for the in­vol­un­tary dis­ap­pear­ance of Bal­want Singh Mul­tani -the son of a for­mer In­dian Ad­min­is­tra­tive of­fi­cer 29 years ago.

THE DOGGED, FEAR­LESS AP­PROACH AND DE­TER­MI­NA­TION OF rel­a­tives, lawyers and ac­tivists has re­sulted in a case against for­mer Pun­jab Po­lice Chief Sumedh Saini un­der mul­ti­ples sec­tions of the IPC in­clud­ing  Sec­tions 364 (kid­nap­ping or ab­duc­tion in or­der to mur­der), 201 (caus­ing dis­ap­pear­ance of ev­i­dence), 344 (wrong­ful con­fine­ment), 330 (vol­un­tar­ily caus­ing hurt to ex­hort con­fes­sion) and 120 (B) (crim­i­nal con­spir­acy) for the kid­nap­ping of Bal­want Singh Mul­tani by two of­fi­cers of the Chandi­garh po­lice un­der di­rec­tions from the then SSP Chandi­garh Sumedh Saini.

The First In­for­ma­tion Re­port No. 77 reg­is­tered at Po­lice sta­tion Mataur of Mo­hali dis­trict has been filed on the com­plaint of Pal­winder Singh Mul­tani, who is the brother of Bal­want Singh Mul­tani al­legedly ab­ducted and in­vol­un­tary dis­ap­peared at the be­hest of then Chandi­garh SSP Sumedh Saini. The ac­cused as the per the FIR are for­mer DGPC Pun­jab Sumedh Singh Saini, DSP Baldev Singh Saini, Sub-In­spec­tors Savir Singh, Harsa­hai Sharma, Ja­gir Singh and Anoop Singh, along with Kuldeep Singh and other un­known po­lice per­son­nel.

For nearly two decades and more Saini was a law unto him­self, it will not be wrong to say that he was “law”.  The State gov­ern­ment of Pun­jab and the In­dian Union gov­ern­ment had given him full pow­ers from his days as SSP to DGP to ha­rass, maim and kill with full im­punity.

As the DGP -Pun­jab, he is clearly re­spon­si­ble for the Be­hbal Kalan fir­ing in which two Sikhs were killed in 2015 and it would be keenly watched how the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, in this case, pro­ceeds af­ter Saini is de­tained in the ab­duc­tion case.”

Kan­war Pal Singh, Spokesper­son, Dal Khalsa

It is a big re­lief to many that some rel­a­tives, lawyers and ac­tivists of those dis­ap­peared in­vol­un­tar­ily, those who were mal­treated and tor­tured and those who faced long de­ten­tions have been doggedly pur­su­ing hu­man rights abuse cases against all odds.

The Cen­tral Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tion rein­ves­ti­gated the case of Bal­want Singh Mul­tani, who was a friend of Davin­der Pal Singh Bhullar and two other rel­a­tives of Davin­der Pal Singh Bhullar -his fa­ther Bal­want Singh Bhullar and his un­cle, who went miss­ing af­ter de­ten­tion, un­der or­ders of the Pun­jab and Haryana High Court, in 2007. It is com­mon knowl­edge that they were tor­tured and killed.

For nearly two decades and more Saini was a law unto him­self, it will not be wrong to say that he was “law”.  The State gov­ern­ment of Pun­jab and the In­dian Union gov­ern­ment had given him full pow­ers from his days as SSP to DGP to ha­rass, maim and kill with full im­punity. 

Sig­nif­i­cantly, the bat­tle be­tween the po­lice hi­er­ar­chy, the state ad­min­is­tra­tion and the In­dian se­cu­rity ap­pa­ra­tus in Delhi are likely to come out to the fore and we can wit­ness dirty linen be­ing washed in pub­lic -hope­fully, all of this will re­sult in the dis­cov­ery of truth sooner than later.

Speak­ing to WSN, Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Kan­war Pal Singh said, “Saini’s hands are dipped in the blood of in­no­cents. He mas­ter­minded the bru­tal killings of fe­male fam­ily mem­bers of Bal­winder Singh Jat­tana. He ab­ducted and killed Prof Ra­jin­der Pal Singh Bu­lara of Pun­jab Agri­cul­tural Uni­ver­sity. He is also fac­ing mur­der charges of own­ers of Saini Mo­tors, Lud­hi­ana.”

“As the DGP -Pun­jab, he is clearly re­spon­si­ble for the Be­hbal Kalan fir­ing in which two Sikhs were killed in 2015 and it would be keenly watched how the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, in this case, pro­ceeds af­ter Saini is de­tained in the ab­duc­tion case,” added Kan­warpal Singh.

“Jus­tice for crimes against hu­man­ity must have no lim­i­ta­tions.”

Si­mon Wiesen­thal

Hun­dreds of fam­i­lies di­rectly and in­di­rectly af­fected by the in­hu­man prac­tice of hu­man rights abuse in Pun­jab by Sumedh Saini are dy­ing to watch the im­age of Saini be­ing hand­cuffed and taken to court and hauled be­fore a court of law, an op­por­tu­nity he de­nied to so many dur­ing his polic­ing pe­riod.

Aus­trian Holo­caust sur­vivor and Nazi hunter Si­mon Wiesen­thal said, “Jus­tice for crimes against hu­man­ity must have no lim­i­ta­tions.” Let us hope that In­dian courts and the Union gov­ern­ment of In­dia will not ob­struct the wheels of jus­tice, even though de­liv­er­ance of jus­tice is a far cry.