The arrest warrant against Sumedh Singh Saini was issued on September 12 (File)
Former Punjab Director-General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini today appeared before a Mohali court, seeking the withdrawal of an arrest warrant against him and said he is ready to join the investigation in the 1991 Balwant Singh Multani disappearance case.
The court issued a notice to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Punjab Police, seeking its reply, and fixed September 30 as the next date of hearing.
The former DGP, along with his counsel, appeared in the court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Ravinder Kaur, said Special Public Prosecutor Sartej Singh Narula.
Sumedh Singh Saini said in his application that the Supreme Court has granted him interim protection from arrest in the case and the non-bailable warrant issued against him be withdrawn.
Sumedh Singh Saini also said he was "ready and willing" to appear before the investigating agency and cooperate as and when required.
The former state police chief filed the application two days after he failed to appear before the SIT for investigation at the Mataur police station in Mohali.
The arrest warrant against him was issued by the court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Ravtesh Inderjit Singh on September 12.
The court had then directed the police to produce Sumedh Singh Saini by September 25.
The former DGP was charged in May in connection with the disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani, a junior engineer with Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation.
The police had last month added murder charge under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the case after former Chandigarh Police Inspector Jagir Singh and ex-ASI Kuldeep Singh, who are also co-accused-turned-approvers.
Sumedh Singh Saini, a 1982-batch IPS officer, was the youngest DGP in the country when he was appointed as the state police chief in 2012.
He was removed from the post in 2015 after protests erupted following desecration of religious texts. Sumedh Singh Saini retired in 2018.
Balwant Singh Multani, a resident of Mohali, was picked by the police after a terrorist attack on Sumedh Singh Saini, who was then the senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh.
Later, it was claimed that Balwant Singh Multani, son of a former IAS officer, had escaped from the custody of the Qadian police in Gurdaspur.
Sumedh Singh Saini and six others were charged on the complaint of Balwant Multani's brother Palwinder Singh Multani, a resident of Jalandhar.
Initially, the case was registered against them for criminal conspiracy, causing disappearance of evidence of offence, voluntarily causes hurt, wrongful confinement and kidnapping or abducting in order to murder of the IPC.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)