High Court Orders To Finish 1994 Triple Murder Case Expeditiously, Refuses Transfer In Lower Court

The High Court has directed the lower court to quickly complete the trial of the 1994 triple murder case. It refused to transfer the case to another lower court and said there was no basis to allow such a demand. The case is going on in Rouse Avenue Court, which is one of the oldest cases being heard, being 30 years old. Former Punjab Police Chief Sumedh Singh Saini is an accused in this case.

Justice Jyoti Singh, in her recent order, said this court is of the view that the special judge hearing the present case will be equally sensitive to the long pendency of the case and will endeavor to dispose of the case as expeditiously as possible.

He has also asked the special judge not to give any unnecessary adjournment. Ashish Kumar, brother of one of the three victims in the case, had filed a petition seeking transfer from the court of Special Judge Sunena Sharma to the court of Additional District Judge Naresh Kumar Laka, who filed a detailed hearing on several dates before being transferred.

According to the petition, this criminal case is at the stage of final arguments in the lower court. It said that when the case was transferred to another court on March 19 this year, Justice Laka heard the final arguments for five days. Now this case will have to be heard again by a new judge. The case pertains to the alleged involvement of the then SSP of Ludhiana, Saini, in the kidnapping and murder of three persons, Vinod Kumar, Ashok Kumar and their driver Mukhtiyar Singh, in Ludhiana in 1994.

The murder was allegedly carried out on Saini’s orders. According to the allegations, the conspiracy was hatched along with other accused policemen Sukh Mohinder Singh Sandhu, Paramjit Singh and Balbir Chand Tiwari to settle personal scores against the owners of Saini Motors, an automobile dealership in Punjab. Vinod and Ashok were the main financiers of Saini Motors.

The case against Saini and others was registered by the CBI on April 18, 1994, on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court in 2004. In this case, a charge sheet was filed against several people under charges of kidnapping, wrongful imprisonment and criminal conspiracy.

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