June 15, 2020 | By Sikh Siyasat Bureau
Mohali: Indian system took 29 years to register the first information report (FIR) against former Punjab cop Sumedh Saini in a case related to enforced disappearance of a Sikh youth named Balwant Singh Multani in 1991. But soon after registration of FIR Sumedi Saini twice got bail in the same case.
As ‘enforced disappearances’ which amount to crimes against humanity under international criminal law, are not recognised as a separate crime under the Indian law, Sumedh Saini was booked under sections 364 (abduction with intent to murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 344, 330 and 219 of Indian Penal Code (IPC). The case FIR no. 77/2020 was registered on 6 May 2020 at Mataur police station. But soon after registration of FIR an Indian court in Mohali granted him anticipatory bail on May 11.
Sumedh Saini Gets Interim Bail in ‘Likely Addition of Murder Clause’:
The court of Additional Sessions Judge Mohali Monika Goyal on Monday (June 15) granted interim bail to Sumedh Saini while issuing notice for 18 June to the state government to respond to Sumedh Saini’s bail plea.
The interim bail is granted in the likelihood of additional clause of murder against Sumedh Saini.
In his bail application Sumedh Saini has pleaded that the Punjab police was likely to add additional clause under section 302 (murder) in FIR registered against him.
Notably, an eyewitness Advocate G. K. Mann has reportedly recorded her witness with the investigative officer in which she disclosed that Balwant Singh Multani was nearly dead when she last saw him at section 17 police station in Chandigarh. She had said that Sumedh Saini had tortured Balwant Singh Multani so badly that it was very hard for him to survive.
Dual Standards of Law: Advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur
Commenting of Mohali court’s order granting interim bail to Sumedh Saini in Balwant Singh Saini case on mere likelyhood of addition of section 302 in the FIR, Advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur maintained that there were double standards of law. He said that on the one hand Sikh youth like Jagtar Singh Jaggi Johal is confined behind the bars more than two and half years now on allegations in various are nothing more than carbon copy of Punjab police chargesheet in one case but on the other hands ‘human rights abusers’ like Sumedh Saini are being ‘blindly’ granted bails.
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Related Topics: Advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur, Enforced Disappearances, Human Rights, Punjab Police Atrocities, Sumedh Saini