The Supreme Court Wednesday quashed a Punjab and Haryana High Court order directing a CBI probe into the alleged involvement of senior IPS officer of Punjab in the killing of Balwant Singh Bhullar and Balwant Singh Multani during the period of Sikh insurgency in the state.
An apex court bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and A.K. Patnaik said the high court order suffered from “bias” and was “legally impermissible”.
Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sumedh Singh Saini had been in the dock for the alleged kidnapping and killing of Balwant Bhullar and Multani. The two had been allegedly picked up by police teams after an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Saini in 1991.
The assassination attempt was allegedly by Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, Balwant Bhullar’s son and Multani’s friend. Devinder Bhullar is on death row for his involvement in an attack on the then youth Congress chief M.S. Bitta in Delhi in 1993.
Directing that all the proceedings consequent to the high court order are null and void, the court quashed the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case.
