NEW DELHI: The Punjab government has decided to drop recs in a record number of 107 Out of 422. Booked under TADA (Terrorists and Disruptive Prevention) Activities Act). Official sources here sad on May 29. Out of 107 cases one case involved a Congress dissident leader ‘OF Ludhiana Rajinder Saini who was slapped with TADA for daring the Minister Singh in a political rivalry.
All the TADA cases were reviewed at Chandigarh on May 3 by a review committee constituted the State government in the ke of the Supreme Court orders the Rajinder Saini case The review committee comprised A:S.Chatha Chief Secretary NK. Arom Principal Secretary Home A.S. Gill Law Secretary and KP.S. Gill Director-General of Police the sources said.
The committee also decided to review through periodic meetings TADA cases registered in the state after March 31 this year. But in the Case of Saini the committee decided to prosecute the Case under other sections of the law.
Since there was no recovery of ‘arms in the Rajinder Saini case the review committee decided to drop the application of Section 5 of the TADA but it chose to retain Section 25 and 27 of the Arms act the sources said.
Saini charged with hatching a conspiracy to kill the Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh was picked Up by Punjab police on May 16 from the office of the youth Congress president Maninderjit Singh Bitta in New Delhi without informing the Delhi police. On that day Bitta had invited Saini to help rapprochement between the dissident leader and the Chief Minister. Before that several members of the Saini family A were harassed and tortured by the Punjab police.
All the three pages of the minutes Of the review committee dwell on the Rajinder Saini case The committee noted that the complainant Jagdev Singh who is the only eye Witness 10 the conspiracy refused to be a part of the frame-up while the case came up in the apex court the sources said. In his petition 16 the Supreme Count Jagdev Singh said he was forced to write a complaint at gun point for getting the case registered against Saini and others the committee noted in its minutes. After his release from jail in March this year Saini has been camping in Delhi bees use of security reasons. Delhi police as provided security to the Saini family in Delhi on the orders of the Supreme Court When contacted. Saini alleged what several overzealous police officers who registered record number of TADA cases without any reason were given promotions by the Beant Singh government.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 3, 1994
