Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Chandigarh, January 30
Special Judicial Magistrate, CBI, Sukhdev Singh has rejected an application of Kalyani Singh, accused in murder case of Sukhmanpreet Singh Siddhu, alias Sippy Sidhu, for issuing directions to the CBI to preserve videography/audiography conducted during her remand period.
The court has also dismissed another application for making reference to the Supreme Court for initiation of contempt proceedings against all CBI officials responsible for not preserving the videography/audiography conducted during her remand period.
In the applications, she said she had been falsely implicated in the case. She was arrested in the case on June 15, 2022. She alleged that she was subjected to intimidation and intemperate psychological and verbal abuse during the remand period in order to compel her to admit to the commission of crime. She alleged that not providing the CCTV footage amounts to criminal contempt in so far as it tends to obstruct and interfere with the administration of justice, and also an illegal act of the CBI officials concerned, in view of the judgment passed by the Supreme Court in Paramvir Singh Saini Vs Baljit Singh case.
Narender Singh, Public Prosecutor, denied all charges and said the applications were nothing but were delay tactics on the part of the accused.
After hearing of the arguments, the court said there was nothing on record that was suggestive of the fact that CBI had intentionally deleted the CCTV footage of the requisite period. Rather, unavailability of CCTV footage of the requisite period was on account of low capacity of recording system. Even otherwise also, the accused has failed to prove her allegations, thus, no right arises in her favour to ask for the preservation of
CCTV footage of the requisite period, said the court.
Meanwhile, the court also dismissed an application seeking directions to the CBI to supply the copies of evidence collected by the UT police during the course of investigation in the case.
Sippy Sidhu, an advocate, was shot dead at a park in Sector 27 on the night of September 20, 2015.
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