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Congress MLA seeks suspension of Punjab Vigilance Bureau chief

CHANDIGARH: A Congress legislator, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who represents Bholath constituency in the Punjab Assembly, has written to the Governor, S.F. Rodrigues, seeking the suspension of the State’s Director of the Vigilance Bureau, Sumedh Singh Saini, who was recently booked by the CBI in a case of alleged abduction and disappearance of two persons.

Through a letter to the Governor, the copies of which were released to reporters here on Sunday, Mr. Khaira also questioned the policy followed by the Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, to shield and appoint officers on plum positions despite their dubious track record of gross human rights violations and pending criminal cases. It also exposed the pseudo criticism that Mr. Badal and other Akali leaders had indulged in, over the issue of genocide of Sikh youths through fake encounters and extra judicial killings during the days of terrorism in Punjab, he added.

Mr. Khaira drew the attention of the Governor that the CBI had informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that an FIR had been registered against Mr. Saini kidnapping, abduction, illegal confinement, torture with intention to murder two persons, who have been reported missing from Chandigarh since December 1991. He said that the same officer had already been charge sheeted by the CBI before a special court in Delhi for similar charges in the infamous Saini Motors case of Ludhiana.

Emphasising that though Mr. Saini was liable for suspension after being chargesheeted by the CBI court during the previous instance, Mr. Khaira alleged that the Punjab Government instead of acting according to the directions from the Union Home Ministry, went ahead to post the officer in an important position. To support his demand for suspension, Mr. Khaira cited a judgment by the Supreme Court, in the case of Niranjan Singh v/s Prabhakar Rajaram Kharote and others SCP (Criminal) No. 393 of 1980.

The legislator said that as another FIR containing serious charges had been registered against the officer, it was highly impossible to conduct a free and fair investigation till Mr. Saini continued to hold the present office.

The legislator said that he approached the Governor directly due to lack of confidence in the present State Government as Mr Saini was “a blue-eyed boy of the present Chief Minister a fact that could be gauged from his present posting as Director Vigilance Bureau.” As it was highly unlikely for Mr. Badal to suspend the said officer, Mr. Khaira urged the Governor to exercise his powers as the Constitutional Head of the State to direct the State Government to act in accordance with law.

Mr. Khaira charged that in order to keep Mr. Saini as the head of the Vigilance Bureau, the Chief Minister in his capacity as Home Minister had preferred to keep the post of Chief Director Vigilance vacant, which otherwise was supposed to be headed by an officer in the rank of not below an Additional Director General of Police (ADGP).

Mr. Khaira alleged that the present set up of the Vigilance Bureau, since the last 18 months of the Akali-BJP rule was being used as a tool by the Chief Minister to settle scores against his political opponents. The issue of political vendetta at the hands of the Vigilance Bureau had been raised many a times by former Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh.

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