HC notice to ex-vigilance chief, 2 others on ex-Punjab DGP Saini’s contempt plea

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday put former Punjab vigilance chief BK Uppal and two other cops on notice on a contempt plea moved by former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini.

The plea was filed on September 1, but the notice was issued on Friday, confirmed Saini’s lawyer Sant Pal Singh Sidhu.

Saini was arrested on August 18 in a September 2020 cheating case when he had gone to the vigilance office to join the probe in a corruption case as directed by the high court on August 12. A day later, the high court had termed his arrest illegal and ordered his release.

Saini has made former director general, vigilance, BK Uppal, then joint director, Varinder Singh and DSP, Harwinder Singh, who was investigating officer of the case as party in the case.

Saini’s allegations are that they acted in violation of high court orders and on the instructions from political leaders even as high court had given him protection against the arrest.

A single-judge bench, which allowed release of Saini, had observed that the allegations against Saini were the same which were in the August 2021 FIR of alleged corruption in which interim anticipatory bail was granted by high court to him on August 12. Thus, Saini’s arrest on substantially the same allegations was “patently illegal” in a 2020 FIR.