Case filed in Punjab High Court for Saini’s removal as DGP

Chandigarh, Punjab: Taking up a petition filed in public interest for removal of Sumedh Singh Saini from the post of Punjab Director-General of Police, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today asked the petitioner-NGO to prove its locus standi on the issue.

As the matter came up for hearing, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Mahesh Grover asked the petitioner to inform the court about the initiatives taken by it so far in public interest.

The Bench fixed April 17 as the next date of hearing on the petition, without taking cognizance of it.

The petition against the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, Punjab Home Department, Sumedh Singh Saini and the CBI, has been filed by Voice for Freedom through its director Simranjit Singh.

A resident of Mohali and a lawyer at the High Court here, Simranjit Singh is seeking directions for quashing Saini’s appointment as DGP on the grounds that it is in violation of the Supreme Court directions and against the spirit of the Punjab Police Act.

The petitioner has referred to the recent decision of the Karnataka High Court, setting aside the appointment of the state DGP.

Gill revisits Punjab Police HQs after 16 years

Sixteen years after he retired as Director General of Punjab Police, K P S Gill, today visited the Punjab Police Headquarter (PPHQ) here. Gill, 76, visited the PPHQ after his confidant Sumedh Singh Saini took over as DGP of Punjab Police last month. Gill and Saini are both known as “Butchers of Punjab” by many Human Right and other Sikh organizations. Gill was DGP of Punjab Police twice – from 1988-90 and then from 1991 to 1995 when he retired from the IPS.