Former Punjab DGP booked in a 29-year-old kidnapping case

Sumedh Singh Saini, former Punjab DGP, and six other police officials have been booked by the state Police in a 29-year-old case of alleged kidnapping of Balwant Singh Multani, son of a former IAS officer. The case was registered at Matuar Police Station in Mohali on Wednesday. It is alleged that Multani was picked up by police after a terrorist attack on Saini, when he was SSP at Chandigarh in 1991.

A Punjab Police spokesperson said that the case against Saini and others, in the matter of disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani, was filed purely on the basis of a fresh application by the victim’s brother, Palwinder Singh. Based on Palwinder Multani’s complaint, the case was registered under 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) in Mohali on Wednesday. The fresh complaint was received by the police on Tuesday. Hours after the registeration of FIR, Saini was stopped from entering Himachal Pradesh at the state’s border with Punjab in the wee hours on Thursday. Sources said that he was not carrying a valid pass for inter-state travel.