Sippy Murder Case: Court sends Kalyani Singh to 14-day judicial custody

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 21

A local court has sent Kalyani Singh, arrested by the CBI in the murder case of Sukhmanpreet Singh Sidhu, aka Sippy Sidhu, a national-level shooter and advocate, to 14-day judicial custody.

The murder took place in September 2015. Kalyani, daughter of a sitting Judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, was produced before a local court after the completion of her two-day police remand. Initially, the CBI had got four-day police remand of Kalyani, which was later extended by two days for further interrogation.

After the completion of the period, the CBI did not seek further remand today. Kalyani was arrested on June 15 after she was called to join the investigation by the CBI.

Sippy was shot dead at a park in Sector 27 on the night of September 20, 2015. After the murder, the police had registered a case against unknown person. However, the police could not solve the case. The case was then transferred to the CBI in 2016. After six years of investigation, the CBI also failed to find the culprits in the case and filed an untrace report in December 2020. While seeking judicial custody, the CBI said the facts revealed during the police custody were under investigation. The CBI said the allegations against the accused were grave and serious in nature. There was prima facie involvement of Kalyani in the commission of the murder. The CBI said there was reasonable apprehension that she might influence witnesses, hamper the ongoing investigation and tamper with the evidence.

While submitting copies of her educational qualifications, counsel for the accused Sartej Singh Narula sought B-class facilities for the accused in jail. The court directed the jail authorities to provide her facilities as per the jail manual.

The hearing also witnessed heated arguments over the application moved by counsel for the accused for issuing directions to the CBI to supply copies of documents, statements of witnesses and electronic records relied upon by the prosecution/CBI in order to submit the untrace report. Narula, along with counsel Rajeev Rana, argued that copies of the statements of the witnesses recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC had already been given to the complainant, but not to the accused.

Narula asked the CBI to show under which law copies of statements were given to the complainant. On the other hand, the public prosecutor argued that there was no law under which the accused could be provided such documents before the court took cognisance of the case. The public prosecutor also cited an apex court ruling in his favour. He said the accused had no locus standi to file the present application at the stage of the investigation. The CBI has recorded the statements of 178 witnesses.

After hearing the arguments, the court adjourned the hearing on the application for June 22, 2022.

Hopeful of justice, says victim’s mother

Deepinder Kaur Sidhu, mother of victim Sippy Sidhu, said she was hopeful that justice would be delivered to her son soon and the accused would face the consequences. She said she was satisfied with the investigation carried out by the CBI so far.

Deepinder and her younger son, Jippy Sidhu, were also present on the court premises when the hearing took place. Jippy denied the allegations of the accused’s counsel that Sippy was pressuring the accused to marry him. He said they had ample evidence to prove that the accused was pressuring Sippy to marry her. The proof was in the form of emails and the other documentary evidence.

Counsel raises questions over probe

Sartej Singh Narula, counsel for the accused, raised questions over the investigation carried out by the CBI in the case. Narula said Sippy’s six alleged girlfriends had been arrayed as witnesses in the untrace report, but their presence at the time of occurrence, and their CDRs had not been analysed by the CBI. He said there was no mobile tower location of Kalyani or any of her relatives at the spot, and the CBI was indulging in “negative investigation” asking her to prove to them that she was not present at the spot.

Seeks B-class facilities for her

While submitting copies of her academic qualifications, counsel for the accused Sartej Singh Narula sought B-class facilities for the accused in jail. The court directed the jail authorities to provide her facilities as per the jail manual.

Counsel: Kalyani’s kin already made to walk, run at spot

Meanwhile, after the hearing, the defence counsel said all close relatives of Kalyani had already been summoned, interrogated and questioned at length. The male relatives, including her father and uncles, had even been made to walk and run from the place of occurrence to the place where the car in which the assailants are stated to have fled and had been made to sit in the car parked there so as to get mapping done with CCTV footage and verify if any of them could be suspected. The mapping had, however, proved that none of the male relatives was at the scene of the crime.

“Bringing in new witnesses after nearly seven years of the occurrence, and over six years two months of the investigation by the CBI will not further its case in any manner and the investigating agency should have rather investigated into clandestine deals and persons with whom the deceased was dealing to make a fortune despite admitting in his email that when his father died, he was left with only Rs 20,000 and was without a job; and that he has made it big by fooling people around,” the counsel claimed.

Kalyani had been taken to various places during her remand, including the scene of the crime, Sippy’s office, besides having been interrogated in the presence of a clinical psychologist. The matter was being investigated for over six years and 178 witnesses had been examined before December 2020 (untrace report).

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