Should not Z plus security cover of Sumedh Saini, former Punjab DGP, be revoked as he has voluntarily left it and gone underground?

 

Can a person with Z plus security cover, Sumedh Saini in this case, go underground?

 

Ground Zero

 

Former Punjab Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini, a Z plus protectee,   having absconded raises some fundamental questions.

He was denied anticipatory bail by the district court in Mohali after Section 302 was added to the case registered against him relating to the detention, torture and disappearance of Chandigarh employee Balwant Singh Multani in 1991 who happened to be son of a serving IAS officer in Punjab. A Punjab cadre IPS officer, Saini was then on deputation with the Chandigarh administration.

His bail plea in the Punjab and Haryana High Court could not be heard as the judge concerned reclused himself. This is not the only case Saini is facing.

 He was appointed as the state police chief during the Akali Dal government headed by Parkash Singh Badal.  The name of Saini surfaces among those in Punjab associated with the human rights violations during militancy. The disappearance of Multani is one such case.

The very first question is as to how come that the state has no information about the person who is under its special protection having been provided Z plus security cover under which the person is also under which the security umbrella also includes a car with a jammer to neutralise wireless triggered bomb attack.  This vehicle is besides the other escort vehicles. A person facing such high risk suddenly going off the radar of the security agencies betrays the failure of these agencies.

The second dimension is that if the person concerned has been moving around for the last several days without his special protection, that means that person just does not need this security cover. Why should the tax payers be burdened with the security of such people? His security cover should be withdrawn on this very basis.

The third important aspect is as to who is sheltering him. Would action would also be taken against the people with whom he is staying?

Or is it possible that such person is being protected by some other agency? After all, Saini  is among those officers who were considered to be ‘heroes’ in the fight against militancy in Punjab. These people were protecting the Indian State.

Several of these officers were rewarded by the Badal government despite the promise in the Akali Dal manifesto at one time to take action against those guilty of human rights excesses.

However, the basic issue at present is that of Saini having gone undergone to evade arrest.

This is one case in which some powerful people at the top are learnt to be  taking keen interest.  Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh is also under political pressure from his cabinet colleagues to take action. Saini was the police chief during sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari and the police firing on peaceful Sikh protesters at Kotkapura followed by Behbal Kalan in 2015. Every effort has been made to scuttle that probe.

The Multani case is with the Punjab police unlike the Bargari case in which CBI was also involved before the Punjab government decided to withdraw it from the central agency.

Should not the Punjab government announce the withdrawal of his security cover as he has left it behind at his own?

Every life  is precious. So was that of Balwant Singh Multani.

The Punjab government should now start the exercise of pruning such security.

Why should some lives in democracy be more precious than that of others?

The main issue at present in this case, however, is as to how can the security agencies be in the dark about a person who is on the high priority list for protection?