Following the Punjab and Haryana High Court calling thearrest of Sumedh Saini illegal, the Punjab Jails and Cooperation ministerSukhjinder Singh Randhawa has urged Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh toimmediately remove advocate general Atul Nanda, home secretary Anurag Agarwal,and Vigilance Bureau top director BK Uppal.
In his tweet over top officials’ fiasco in the SumedhSiani case, the cabinet minister called them ‘professionally incompetent’.
Randhawa took to Twitter and said, “In view of the fiascoin Sumedh Singh Saini case, I urge chief Minister @capt_amarinder toimmediately remove Advocate General, Home Secretary and Chief DirectorVigilance, for their professional incompetence.”
Ex-DGP Saini's case has political colour to it as heclaims that the Congress government is out to get him because he lodged casesagainst Amarinder Singh and his aide BS Chahal as vigilance chief during theprevious SAD-BJP regime.
Notably, Randhawa has already criticised Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh and his close aides for failing to fulfil the electionpromises, particularly the failure to act on the 2015 sacrilege and policefiring cases.
Besides, this is not the first time that Randhawa hasrequested the removal of Attorney General Atul Nanda. He has earlier alsoraised the demand of sacking Atul Nanda and raised questions on his“competency” as AG.
He had earlier pointed out that state government wouldface an unprecedented embarrassment someday going by the manner in which AGoffice is functioning under Nanda. He said the state government in past manyyears has lost important cases in the court of law due to his incompetency, whileSaini’s release is another nail in the coffin.
Meanwhile, Saini was arrested by the state's VigilanceBureau in connection with a case filed in September 2020 under sections 420(cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 468 (forgery for cheating), 120-B(criminal conspiracy), and relevant sections of the Prevention of CorruptionAct.
His arrest, the Punjab and Haryana High Court decided,violated previous rulings and an anticipatory bail order. Justice Arun KumarTyagi's court ordered that Saini be released immediately.
Counsel APS Deol said Saini's arrest in the September2020 case was “flagrant misuse of power by police and misuse of power by thevigilance.”