Sippy Sidhu murder case: Comply with HC order by November 2, trial court tells CBI
On October 4, HC had told CBI to provide prime accused Kalyani Singh the probe documents sought by her in two weeks; but the agency, which has approached SC, has been seeking repeated adjournments
The special CBI court hearing the Sippy Sidhu murder case has once again directed the probe agency to comply with the Punjab and Haryana high court’s order by next hearing on November 2 “if they do not have any other order in their favour”.
On October 4, the high court had directed CBI to provide probe documents as sought by Kalyani Singh, the prime accused in the murder case, within two weeks.
CBI was first directed to supply probe documents to Kalyani on May 8, which the probe agency has challenged before the Supreme Court through a special leave petition (SLP), whose decision is pending.
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 a 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. Since September 2022, Kalyani has been out on bail.
On May 8 this year, the high court had allowed Kalyani’s plea, wherein she had sought access to copies of documents filed by the prosecution, and electronic data and articles not relied upon by CBI in the challan, along with those relied upon by the agency in the “untraced report” filed in 2020.
Following high court’s October 4 order, directing CBI yet again to comply with its May order within two weeks, the trial court had also told CBI to adhere to the order within the given time frame.
But CBI moved an application stating that its SLP was pending before the Supreme Court. The case has been listed before the trial court at least 24 times since May.
At the latest hearing on Wednesday, Kalyani’s counsel objected to the repeated adjournments being sought by CBI.
The court was informed that the high court and Supreme Court will be on vacations till October 29 and CBI will be able to get its matter listed only after that.
On this, the court said, “The high court has asked CBI to comply with its order, but similar request of adjournment has again been made. CBI is directed to strictly comply with the HC order by November 2 if in the meanwhile they do not have any other order in their favour.”