Missing businessmen: Charges framed against Punjab IG, others

The court also ordered substantive charge to be framed for abduction against Saini. According to the chargesheet filed by the investigating agency, at the time of the incident, Saini was the SSP of Ludhiana, Sandhu was SP of Ludhiana, Paramjit Singh was the SHO of Focal Point PS while BC Tiwari was the SHO of Kotwali PS. The court in its order on December 6, last year, had directed all four accused to be present during the next hearing on framing of charges.

Significantly, the earlier order mentioned Section 341 (wrongful restraint) instead of 342 (wrongful confinement) as part of the sections to be invoked against the accused.

During arguments on Tuesday, prosecutor YK Saxena sought that the section for wrongful confinement be invoked instead of wrongful restraint, adding that it had been a clerical error which needed to be rectified, and that the section of confinement had been mentioned throughout the chargesheet and in the earlier documents.

The defence contested this, charging that the prosecution was trying to “smuggle in’’ the section on wrongful confinement instead of wrongful restraint since confinement is a much graver offence and carries a heavier punishment of three years.

The court, ordering charges to be framed against the accused, dismissed the defence contention and allowed the section for wrongful restraint to be struck out and replaced with that for wrongful confinement. All four accused, including Inspector-General Saini were present in court during the arguments on Tuesday.

As per the chargesheet, Saini had a personal grudge against some relatives, and had allegedly sought assistance from victim Vinod Kumar and his family members, who were financing Saini Motors, run by the relatives. When Kumar refused to do so, Saini allegedly got him and his brother-in-law implicated in a false case of financial misappropriation in 1994, had them picked up along with their driver and illegally detained, after which they disappeared.

Vinod Kumar’s family had alleged that the two businessmen were murdered. The case was later transferred to a special court in Delhi after it was apprehended that the accused might try to influence the course of the trial.