Sippy Sidhu murder case: Trial court tells CBI to comply with HC order by Nov 22
On October 4, HC had told CBI to provide prime accused Kalyani the probe documents sought by her in two weeks; but the agency, which has approached SC, has been seeking repeated adjournments
tanbir.dhaliwal@htlive.com
The special CBI court hearing the Sippy Sidhu murder case has given “one last opportunity” to the probe agency to comply with Punjab and Haryana high court’s order by the next hearing on November 22.
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 (SC) through a special leave petition (SLP), whose decision is pending.
Through a fresh application on Friday, while including a letter of urgency written to the SC registrar, CBI stated that the matter was likely to be listed before the apex court on December 1.
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 SC and over a month later, has yet to comply with the HC order.
The murder case has been listed before the trial court at least 24 times since May.
The trial court’s order on Friday mentioned that the defence counsel stated that if the matter gets adjourned, it may be fixed after the date on which the case is likely to be listed before SC, that is December 1.
“It is however seen that there has been much delay by CBI in complying with the directions of the high court and as such, one last opportunity for the same is granted for November 22. If still, the compliance is not made, the same would be brought to the notice of the high court,” the order stated.
