Sippy Sidhu murder: Can’t allow unrestricted access to probe material, says HC on Kalyani’s plea
It is imperative to underscore that the prayer for unfettered right to inspect case diary entries based solely on an unsubstantiated apprehension that the family of the deceased/mother of the deceased has been provided such access by the police or the court is untenable and goes against settled ratio of law, said the HC bench
Allowing unrestricted access to “sensitive information” related to the probe could endanger the safety of informants and also discourage cooperation with law enforcement agencies, the Punjab and Haryana high court has said while dismissing plea from Kalyani Singh, the prime accused in the 2015 Sippy Sidhu murder case, seeking more documents pertaining to the probe.
“It is imperative to underscore that the prayer for unfettered right to inspect case diary entries based solely on an unsubstantiated apprehension that the family of the deceased/mother of the deceased has been provided such access by the police or the court is untenable and goes against settled ratio of law. Granting such broad access could potentially compromise public interest, especially when sensitive information like the identity of the informants is recorded in the case diary,” the bench of justice Manjari Nehru Kaul observed.
Kalyani had approached the high court on April 18, pleading that her application seeking some additional documents was dismissed by the special CBI court in Chandigarh, even as such documents were cited by CBI in its probe and many of them also provided to the complainant family.
National-level shooter and lawyer Sukhmanpreet Singh, better known as Sippy Sidhu, was shot dead at a park in Sector 27 on September 20, 2015. His family has maintained that Kalyani, daughter of former Punjab and Haryana high court judge justice Sabina (retd), 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 CBI. The central agency had at one point of time also filed an “untraced” report. But in June 2022, she was arrested by CBI and later charged with murder.
However, charges are yet to be framed by the special CBI court, hearing the murder trial, amid filing of one or the other applications by Kalyani, who has been out on bail since September 2022.
The court further said that the restriction outlined in Sub-Section (3) of Section 172 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is essential to uphold the integrity of the legal processes and safeguard public interest. In case, some documents are relevant and may impact the case of an accused, even if not relied upon by the prosecution, recourse under Section 91 CrPC would remain available to her at the appropriate stage of the trial.
“Although an accused may, under certain circumstances, have the right to peruse prior statements recorded in a police officer’s diary under Section 145 or 161 of the Evidence Act, this right is hindered by the constraints imposed by Section 172(3) of the CrPC, and cannot thus be availed of, by the accused at this initial stage, under Section 207 of the CrPC,” it added. The Section 172(3) of the CrPC says accused can’t call for case diary of the case in question. Sections 207 of the CrPC deals with rights of an accused to get copies of criminal case related documents.
Meanwhile, the trial court on Tuesday adjourned the proceedings till May 4 to decide framing of charges against Kalyani, following her counsel’s request, which was “highly” opposed by CBI’s counsel Narender Singh.