Delhi HC To Hear On Apr 8 Transfer Plea In 1994 Triple Murder Case Against Former Punjab Top Cop

The petition is listed for hearing on April 8 before Justice Jyoti Singh.

The petition has sought the transfer of the case from the court of Sunena Sharma, special Prevention of Corruption Act judge, to the court of Additional District Judge Naresh Kumar Laka, who had heard the matter at length on various dates before being transferred to his present roster. The case is going on in the Tis Hazari Court here.

"The present case is one of the oldest identified cases (FIR is of the year 1994) being 30-year-old matter and because of the transfer, the new judge will have to rehear the matter again, which would result in further delay," according to the petition which is filed through advocate Adarsh Priyadarshi.

The transfer petition has been filed in the high court by Ashish Kumar, brother of one of the three victims.

According to the plea, the criminal case is at the stage of final arguments in the trial court.

It said that judge Laka had heard final arguments for five days when the case was transferred to another court on March 19 this year and the new judge will now hear the matter.

"The record of the case is voluminous running in thousands of pages and the court of Naresh Kumar Laka has gone through the entire record of the case… The FIR is of year 1994 and a lot of witnesses have died or were given up due to prolonged trial, the delay is solely attributable to the accused. Any further delay would gravely prejudice and harm the complainant who has been sincerely and diligently pursuing the complaint for the last three decades," the petition claimed.

The case pertains to alleged involvement of Saini, the then SSP of Ludhiana, in the kidnapping and murder of three persons - Vinod Kumar, Ashok Kumar and their driver Mukhtiar Singh -- in 1994 in Ludhiana.

The CBI has alleged that the three men were murdered at the behest of Saini who hatched a conspiracy in connivance with other accused policemen 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 registered by the CBI on April 18, 1994 against Saini and others on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court in 2004.

Saini was chargesheeted along with others in a case of abduction, wrongful confinement and criminal conspiracy.