1994 Triple Murder Case: Delhi HC to Hear Transfer Plea against Ex-Punjab Cop

The Delhi High Court is scheduled to hear a plea on Monday seeking the transfer of a 1994 triple murder case, in which former Punjab police chief Sumedh Singh Saini is an accused, from one trial court judge to another.

The petition is scheduled for hearing before Justice Jyoti Singh. Filed through advocate Adarsh Priyadarshi, the petition seeks the transfer of the case from the court of Sunena Sharma, a special Prevention of Corruption Act judge, to the court of Additional District Judge Naresh Kumar Laka, who had previously heard the matter extensively before being transferred to his current assignment. The case is ongoing in the Tis Hazari Court in Delhi.

The petitioner, Ashish Kumar, brother of one of the three victims, highlights that the case is among the oldest identified cases, with an FIR dating back to 1994.

The petition emphasizes that due to the transfer, the new judge would have to rehear the entire matter, leading to further delays. The plea underscores that the criminal case is currently at the stage of final arguments in the trial court.

It further mentions that Judge Laka had conducted final arguments for five days before the case was transferred to another court on March 19 of this year.

The petition emphasizes the voluminous nature of the case record, running into thousands of pages, and notes that Judge Laka had thoroughly examined the entire record before the transfer. It further argues that the prolonged trial has resulted in the death of several witnesses and has caused delays primarily attributable to the accused. Any additional delay, it claims, would severely prejudice the complainant, who has diligently pursued the case for the past three decades.

The case revolves around the alleged involvement of Saini, the then SSP of Ludhiana, in the kidnapping and murder of three individuals – Vinod Kumar, Ashok Kumar, and their driver Mukhtiar Singh – in 1994 in Ludhiana.

The CBI has alleged that the three men were murdered at Saini’s behest as part of a conspiracy involving other accused policemen, including Sukh Mohinder Singh Sandhu, Paramjit Singh, and Balbir Chand Tiwari, to settle a personal score against the owners of Saini Motors, an automobile dealership in Punjab. Vinod and Ashok were chief financiers to Saini Motors.

The case was initially registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on April 18, 1994, against Saini and others following the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. It was later transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court in 2004. Saini was chargesheeted along with others in a case involving charges of abduction, wrongful confinement, and criminal conspiracy.