SC judge recuses herself from hearing CBI’s plea in Sippy Sidhu murder case

A Supreme Court judge, hearing a plea from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 2015 Sippy Sidhu murder case, has recused herself from hearing the matter.

The plea was filed by CBI against the Punjab and Haryana high court May order that had directed the agency to provide some documents related to the investigation to Kalyani Singh, the prime accused in the case and daughter of a former judge.

National-level shooter and corporate lawyer Sukhmanpreet Singh Sidhu, alias Sippy Sidhu, was shot dead at a Sector 27 park in Chandigarh on the night of September 20, 2015, eight years ago. Sippy was the grandson of a former Punjab and Haryana high court judge, justice SS Sidhu.

His family has maintained that Kalyani killed him as they had turned down her marriage proposal. The case was initially probed by the Chandigarh Police but in 2016, it was transferred to the CBI.

The case was registered at CBI, special crime branch, Chandigarh, on April 13, 2016, in compliance with the orders of the Chandigarh home secretary.

CBI plea’s was listed before the bench of justice Aniruddha Bose and justice Bela M Trivedi on September 15. But the latter decided to recuse herself from the hearing and ordered listing of the matter before some other bench. The case is now listed for September 22.

Kalyani was arrested by CBI on June 22, 2022. She secured bail in September 2022.

A charge sheet naming her as the main accused has been filed by the agency. She is the daughter of justice Sabina (retd), who also remained acting chief justice of the Himachal Pradesh high court.

In May, the Punjab and Haryana high court had allowed Kalyani’s plea, in which she was seeking access to copies of documents filed by the prosecution, electronic data and articles not relied upon by CBI in the challan.

Besides, this she was also seeking documents relied upon by CBI earlier in the “untraced report” filed in 2020.

On August 7, a CBI court directed the investigating agency to ensure “strict compliance” of the high court’s orders on providing Kalyani the complete set of documents. The order came in the wake of high court, on July 31, rejecting CBI’s plea for extension of time to comply with the May 8 order.

Following which, CBI filed a special leave petition (SLP) before the Supreme Court against the high court order.

CBI has also informed the trial court hearing the murder case to adjourn the matter till the decision of the Supreme Court, as if HC’s May 8 order is complied with, filing of appeal before the apex court would become infructuous and seriously prejudice CBI’s case.

The murder trial is underway in the court of special CBI judge Jagjit Singh.