Chandigarh, October 12: The Punjab and Haryana High Court Thursday gave interim relief to former Punjab DGP SumedhSingh Saini while directing the state government to give a week’s notice to the former top cop in case police proposes to arrest him, if any case is made out against him.
The High Court directed the issuance of a seven-day advance notice to Saini in case police proposes to arrest him, Saini’s counsel Venod Ghai said.
The court issued notice to the state government and CBI for November 28 on his plea seeking directions to Punjab to hand over investigation in any matter registered against him to the CBI or any other independent agency outside the state, he said.
Saini had moved the High Court in light of Justice (retd) RanjitSingh Commission’s findings concerning him.
The commission looked into the acts of omission and commission committed by the police in the 2015 Behbal Kalan sacrilege row in which two youth were killed after police firing on protesters staging demonstration against incidents of sacrileges.
The commission was set up by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in April 2017 under Justice Ranjit Singh (retd).
Saini was seeking issuance of directions to the state to keep any proposal for arresting him in abeyance for a specific period to enable him to seek recourse to legal remedies, his counsel said.
The former DGP claimed that he was seen as a man who had launched criminal prosecution against the present chief minister and his coterie.
He added that a number of criminal cases were registered against members of the political party now in power in Punjab during his tenure as state Vigilance Bureau head.
His counsel said the petitioner was not summoned at any stage by the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission looking into the sacrilege incidents.
He was in Chandigarh and not at Kotkapura where the force was allegedly used, his counsel submitted.
Source Business Standards
