Seven years after the national-level shooter Sukhmanpreet Singh alias Sippy Sidhu was found murdered in Chandigarh’s Sector-27 park, the After Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested his female friend Kalyani Singh — the daughter of Himachal Pradesh High Court’s judge Justice Sabina.
As per the central agency’s remand plea, it claimed that Sippy Sidhu’s murder in September 2015 was the outcome of “a relationship gone sour”.
The CBI had called Kalyani Singh to its office for questioning after it recovered “documentary material” indicating her affair with Sidhu. The premier probing agency submitted that during the questioning, Kalyani Singh was allegedly “evasive” in her responses following which the CBI arrested her. During her earlier examination she was “evasive in answering the relevant questions and was also found deceptive in the polygraph test on questions or issues related to the murder of Sukhmanpreet Singh”, said CBI in its remand plea.
Kalyani is the daughter of Justice Sabina, who was posted at the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh, in 2015.
Sidhu, grandson of a former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and son of a noted lawyer, was pumped with at least four bullets from a “short gun firearm” on September 20, 2015, and his bullet-ridden body was found in Sector-27 Chandigarh the next morning. The central agency had registered an FIR in the killing of Sidhu who was also a lawyer, on April 13, 2016, on the request of Chandigarh Administration, the CBI said in a statement.
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 sheet her but sought permission to continue investigation because of “strong suspicion on her”. The agency had also underlined a Maruti Zen car spotted at the place of incident at the relevant time, with the last four digits “1183”.
“During further investigation, alleged involvement of accused (Kalyani Singh) came forth in the case. Accordingly, she was examined and arrested...The arrested accused was produced today (Wednesday) in the Court of Special Judicial Magistrate, Chandigarh and remanded to four-day police custody,” a CBI spokesperson said. CBI, in its application seeking remand to interrogate her, said that Kalyani Singh and Sukhmanpreet Singh (alias Sippy Sidhu) were in a close relationship, and she wanted to marry him. Her proposal was rejected by Sippy Sidhu's parents, the agency said.
Sippy Sidhu leaked some of her “objectionable” photographs to her parents and friends, which embarrassed her family and her, the CBI further said.
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. 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 Rs five 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 offence.” As the case dragged on, in December 2021, the CBI increased the reward for clues to Rs 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 that it wanted to interrogate her for the “identification of firearm and assailant; recovery of weapon of offence; recovery of vehicle used in the crime; and unearth the conspiracy and role of other unknown persons”.
