After a wait of 14-long-hours, Punjab’s former Director General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini walked out of the vigilance custody virtually in the wee hours on Friday after his "forthwith" release was ordered by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which, in its judgment, ruled that the former top cop has been “illegally arrested”.
The orders, by Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi of the High Court, were pronounced at about 11:40 pm on Thursday night after hearing day-long arguments on two petitions — one by Saini and another by his wife.
Saini, meanwhile, remained at the Mohali district courts where he was brought for the purpose of remand by the Vigilance Bureau. His release came after the orders were finalized and issued at about 2 am. Justice Tyagi is believed to have remained in his chamber till about 3 am.
In his detailed order on the habeas corpus petition filed by Saini’s wife, Justice Tyagi extensively referred to his apprehensions of being falsely implicated in criminal cases by the ruling Government.
Among other things, the Bench was told that Saini was “illegally detained to show to the public that the statement made on the floor of the House by Cabinet Minister, Punjab, while tabling the reports of Ranjit Singh Commission holding the detainee (Saini) guilty and to harass him in some false case was fulfilled”.
The Bench was also told that the act of the Vigilance Bureau was “blatant and flagrant abuse of the power vested in the police”.
Justice Tyagi also took note of the “political and personal rivalry” between the past and present Chief Ministers — Parkash Singh Badal and Capt Amarinder Singh — and their family.
“There is political and personal rivalry between Parkash Singh Badal and Captain Amarinder Singh and their family, which dates back to late 1990s and findings were recorded regarding this political vendetta in (various) orders….”
Notably, Saini has all along been seeking the transfer of investigation of cases registered against him to the CBI or any other independent agency outside the State of Punjab.
In one of his previous petitions, Saini had alleged malafides on the part of Capt Amarinder Singh and members of ruling party. Taking up the matter, the Court had earlier directed the placing on record the copies of the FIRs registered against Parkash Singh Badal, Capt Amarinder Singh, and their associates.
The Bench also referred to the FIRs registered against Badal and Capt Amarinder.
Reference was also made to Capt Amarinder’s advisor Bharat Inder Singh Chahal’s allegations of police torture. In fact, Chahal was made a respondent in the habeas corpus petition seeking Saini’s release.
Saini was arrested by the state’s Vigilance Bureau on Wednesday night in connection with a case registered in September 2020 for cheating, forgery, corruption, and other offences.
Justice Tyagi, in his orders, observed that Saini’s arrest was illegal and in violation of earlier court orders.
“In view of the above referred judicial precedents and above discussed facts and circumstances of the case evidencing illegality of the arrest of the detenue, the habeas corpus petition is allowed and the detenue is held to have been illegally arrested in circumvented violation of protection orders dated 11.10.2018 and 23.09.2020 and interim anticipatory bail order dated 12.08.2021 passed by the Co-ordinate Bench of this Court,” stated the order.
“Therefore, the detenue is ordered to be released forthwith, according to the court order which was uploaded on the High Court website past midnight,” it added.
The high court on October 11, 2018, had held that Saini would be served a seven-day notice if any action was to be contemplated against him. In the September 23, 2020, order, the Court had extended the protection of the October 2018 order to any incident during Saini’s entire service career.
The court also ordered that a seven-day prior notice is to be given if he is to be arrested in this case.
Saini, a 1982-batch IPS officer, was appointed the Punjab DGP in 2012, but removed from the apex post in 2015 after protests erupted over a series of sacrilege incidents. He retired in 2018.
According to the Vigilance Bureau, he has been arrested under several sections, including 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The case was registered on September 2020 against Davinder Singh Sandhu, director of WWICS Estates Private Ltd, Ashok Sikka PCS officer (now retired), and some other officials of the local government department for illegal change of land use for a piece of land at Kurali with fake documents.
Later, the Vigilance Bureau booked PWD executive engineer Nimratdeep Singh, his father Surinderjit Singh Jaspal and some other persons for allegedly receiving a bribe from Davinder Sandhu for getting the colonies set up at Kurali certified.
The Bureau claimed that the money received was used for purchasing a house in Chandigarh’s Sector 20 in which Saini later stayed as a tenant.
In May 2020, Saini was also booked in the case of disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani in 1991. Multani was then a junior engineer with the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation.