Mohali, Jan. 8 -- Four years after former Punjab top cop Sumedh Singh Saini was nominated as an accused in a September 2020 FIR pertaining to an alleged fraudulent sale of a land in Kurali in Mohali district, the state police special investigation team (SIT) has cleared his name. The high court-constituted SIT headed by IPS officer SS Srivastava, in a report, in Mohali court has said that it has been found after investigation that Saini was not involved in any criminal activity related to this FIR. It also said that he did not motivate any of the accused to commit the crime in question. Hence, he is declared "innocent" in the case in question, the SIT report submitted on Wednesday said. Saini was arrested by the vigilance bureau in this case on August 18, 2021 when he had gone to VB office in connection with some other FIR but had to be released at midnight on August 19 as the high court declared the arrest "illegal". He was named in the FIR on August 2, 2021. The FIR number 11 of September 17, 2020 was registered by vigilance bureau under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and forgery, criminal conspiracy etc. against PWD XEN, Nimratdeep Singh and his father, Surinderjit Singh Jaspal, among others, who had "sold" a Sector-20 house in Chandigarh to Saini, which they had allegedly bought from proceeds of crime. Saini had maintained that he stayed at this house initially as a tenant after retirement as state DGP. The VB has also filed a closure report against Saini in August 2, 2021 FIR registered on allegations of amassing assets disproportionate to known sources of his income. The report was filed on January 5. The DA FIR of 2021 arose from the September 2020 criminal case. Now, Saini is facing a criminal case relating to the disappearance of Balwant Singh Multani, a Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation (CITCO) employee, in 1991. Also he has been named in criminal cases related to the 2015 police firing cases reported in the aftermath of sacrilege incidents. Two protesters were killed allegedly in the police firing at Behbal Kalan in the aftermath of incidents of sacrilege reported at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala in 2015. In the firing incidents reported at Kotkapura, protesters suffered injuries. The SIT probe in 2020 FIR was ordered by the HC as Saini had apprehended "false implication in criminal matters on account of malice, malafide and ulterior motives" by then state Congress government in 2020-2021. The SIT has named seven persons as accused, including Devinder Singh Sandhu, director, WWICS Estate Private Ltd, Ashok Kumar Sikka (PCS Officer who was then posted as deputy director, local government, Patiala); Shakti Sagar Bhatia, who was then posted as Assistant Town Planner with Municipal Corporation in Patiala; then PWD XEN Nimratdeep Singh and his father Surinderjit Singh Jaspal, who is the owner of Sector-20 house. Besides, property dealers Taranjit Singh Bawa and Mohit Puri are also arraigned as accused. Allegations are that Nimratdeep Singh and Davinder Singh Sandhu were good friends. The former sold the Kurali land to Sandhu through dealers Taranjit Bawa and Mohit Puri. The accused forged documents with regard to change of land use (CLU) by WWICS in connivance with employees of the local bodies department. Later, a colony on the said land came up and allegedly they got the land regularised at a cheaper price by projecting it to be an unauthorised colony and also claimed sale of multiple plots already before the CLU. Notably, CLU fees for regularising an unauthorised colony is less as compared to fee of getting a new colony regularised. Probe says the accused encroached upon a seasonal channel and blocked its natural flow. Nimratdeep Singh received payment from Sandhu in three accounts, including in two joint accounts with his father, against sale of their land to Sandhu. They received separate transactions of around Rs 5.56 crore and Rs 8.17 crore in two joint accounts. The amount at which Jaspal had sold the land was utilised to buy the Sector- 20 house for Rs 6.40 crore....