Sippy Sidhu Murder Case: Himachal Pradesh judge’s daughter arrested

CHANDIGARH:  Days, after the CBI arrested the murderer, Kalyani Singh of national-level shooter Sippy Sidhu’s Murder, the Crime Branch agency told a court that the killing was the result of a relationship gone sour.

In its application seeking remand to interrogate her, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said Kalyani Singh and Sukhmanpreet Singh were in a relationship, and she wanted to marry him. Her proposal was rejected by Sippy Sidhu’s parents, the agency said.

Further, CBI said, Sippy Sidhu, leaked some of her photographs to her parents and friends, which embarrassed her family  Kalyani mother, Justice Sabina, is Acting Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court at present. Justice Sabina has in the past been posted at the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh.

On Kalyani Singh’s alleged role, the CBI further told the special court that on September 18, 2015, two days before the murder, she contacted Sippy Sidhu “through mobile phones of other persons” and “compelled” him to meet her in a park in Sector 27, Chandigarh. They met between September 18 and 20 in that park, it said.

On the day of the murder, September 20, “there is evidence confirming her presence with Sippy Sidhu in the evening”. “Investigation has further revealed that one unknown assailant and Kalyani Singh killed Sippy Sidhu by using firearms. Thereafter, both of them were seen running from the spot,” the agency told the court.

Sippy Sidhu, a grandson of a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and son of a noted lawyer, was shot four times from a “short gun firearm” on September 20, 2015, police had said. His body was found the next morning.

Kalyani Singh was under the scanner of the agency for long as it had emerged during the probe that “a woman was accompanying Sidhu’s killer”. The CBI had filed an “untraced report” in 2020 in the case mentioning that it did not have enough evidence to charge her but sought permission to continue the investigation because of “strong suspicion on her”.

The case had been handed over to the CBI in January 2016 after the intervention of the Punjab Governor, who also serves as the Chandigarh UT Administrator. In September that year, the CBI announced ₹ 5 lakh for anyone with clues.

In a newspaper advertisement at the time, the CBI said, “There is reason to believe that a woman was accompanying Sippy’s killer at the time of the murder. The said woman is also being given this opportunity to come forward and contact us if she is innocent. Otherwise, it shall be presumed that she was a party to the offense.”

As the case dragged on, in December 2021 the CBI increased the reward for clues to ₹ 10 lakh. At the latest hearing, the CBI had sought a month’s time to file a status report

On Wednesday, the CBI sought 10 days’ remand but the court gave it four days. The CBI said it wanted to interrogate her to find the other persons likely involved, and to find the weapon and vehicles used in the crime.