Sumedh Singh Saini

Sumedh Singh Saini is a 1982-batch Indian Police Service officer. He was Director General of Police of Punjab until 25 October 2015, when the state government moved him out and made him chairman of the Punjab Police Housing Corporation. The Tribune reported that the move came after the Union Home Minister spoke to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal about the beadbi incidents. In 1991 Saini was Senior Superintendent of Police in Chandigarh.

The 2015 firings

• 14 October 2015: police opened fire on protesters at Behbal Kalan in Faridkot district, killing two people. The Tribune said more than 50 were injured, and that the protesters said they were sitting peacefully.
• 28 September 2020: the Special Investigation Team on the firing nominated Saini, then DGP, and then IGP Paramraj Singh Umranangal as accused in the murder and attempt to murder case, saying both were prima facie guilty. An approver claimed in court that the two had told the then SSP to end the dharna at any cost. These are the SIT's claims and an approver's statement.
• 24 February 2023: the SIT filed a chargesheet of about 7,000 pages in the Kotkapura firing case, accusing Sukhbir Singh Badal and Saini as masterminds and also naming Umranangal and other officers. It blamed then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for facilitating the conspiracy.

The Multani case: Saini and six others were booked at a Mohali police station in May 2020 over the disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani. Multani, a junior engineer with a Chandigarh corporation, was allegedly picked up by police in December 1991 after an attack on Saini that killed three policemen. A murder charge was added on 21 August 2020 after two former Chandigarh policemen turned approvers. On 3 December 2020 the Supreme Court granted Saini anticipatory bail, asking why custody was needed nearly 30 years after the alleged offence. His counsel, Mukul Rohatgi, called the case political vendetta and said Saini had been a prime target of those he fought. In December 2024 a magistrate committed the case to the Mohali sessions court, after the Supreme Court had refused to quash the FIR because a chargesheet had been filed.

What he is known for: in Panthic memory Saini is tied to Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura, the firings that followed the 2015 beadbi incidents. He has not been convicted in any of these cases in the reports used here. His counsel's defence in the Multani case is that it is politically motivated.