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Sippy Sidhu case: CBI charges Kalyani with murder, cites ‘direct’ evidence
36-year-old charged with murder and criminal conspiracy seven years after the national-level shooter and lawyer was shot dead at a Chandigarh park in September 2015
The CBI on Monday charged Kalyani Singh, daughter of a Himachal Pradesh high court judge, with the murder of national-level shooter and lawyer Sukhmanpreet Singh, alias Sippy Sidhu.
In the charge sheet, the federal agency has cited “direct” evidence linking Kalyani, 36, daughter of justice Sabina, with the murder of Sippy, her former boyfriend, who was shot dead at a Sector-27 park on September 20, 2015.
In jail since her arrest on June 15, Kalyani has been charged under Sections 302 (murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal Code.
The CBI stated in the charge sheet that Kalyani, “driven by the obsession of failed love affairs (rejection of marriage proposal), fuelled by feeling of anger and morbid jealously (due to Sippy’s affair with a girl) and humiliation/embarrassment to the family (due to leakage of her objectionable photographs)” hatched a conspiracy with an unknown assailant, called Sippy to the Sector-27 park and killed him by using a .12-bore gun.”
Sufficient evident to substantiate allegations: CBI
There is sufficient direct, documentary, electronic, oral and circumstantial evidence to substantiate the allegations against accused Kalyani Singh, who entered into a criminal conspiracy with unknown person to kill Sippy Sidhu, the CBI stated in the charge sheet.
It said, “Kalyani was in a relationship with Sippy for long and wanted to marry him. But he was in relationship with other girls and was keen on marrying someone else. Then obscene pictures of Kalyani were circulated to her family, which led to sour relations and she entered into a criminal conspiracy with others to take revenge.”
Sippy informed his mother that Kalyani had called him to meet her at a park. He left the house at 7.30 pm and at 11 pm, Sippy’s mother got a call that her son is dead.
“She (Kalyani) called Sippy from the mobile phone of others and met him in the park from September 18 to 20. On the night of crime, she intentionally left her mobile phone at a birthday party. There are evidences showing her presence at the Sector-27 park, having conversation with Sippy, killing him with gunshots and running away in a car,” the charge sheet mentioned.
After the murder, Kalyani fled in a Maruti Suzuki Alto and the other accused fled in a Maruti Suzuki Zen. “The car used in the crime was once owned by her father, which was sold to a Himachal Pradesh resident in December, 2019,” it said.
‘Witnesses saw Kalyani opening fire, running away in car’
CBI has listed 94 witnesses in the charge sheet, among whom a person saw Kalyani and Sippy talking as they walked on the park track. As per the eyewitness, one more person entered the park later and shot two gunshots, while Kalyani also shot two gunshots to kill (Sippy). His postmortem report also showed four gunshot injuries from .12-bore weapons, fired from close range.
Another woman witnessed a white car parked near the main gate of her house, and spotted a 5’4” tall girl with wheatish complexion, wearing black shirt and pants, and a scarf around her neck, fleeing in it, the charge sheet mentioned.
Through photographs, this witness had identified Kalyani as the same girl who fled in the car on September 20, 2015, just after the murder.
‘Left phone at birthday party, returned after murder’
While Kalyani’s family mentions that she was present at a birthday party and her mobile phone location substantiated that, CBI said she was seen in only party pictures taken after 10.15 pm, whereas the murder took place at 9.30 pm.
Also, her family reached the party in two cars, one of which is the Alto used in the crime, as per CBI. Thirdly, the location of the mobile phone was the birthday party venue, but the phone was unusually static for a long time. “Kalyani intentionally left it at home,” the agency said.
Sippy’s family has accused Kalyani of being involved in the murder, as they turned down her marriage proposal. CBI had registered an FIR into the murder on April 13, 2016, on the request of the Chandigarh administration. Earlier, the case was being investigated by the Chandigarh Police. All along, Sippy’s family has accused Kalyani’s mother, who was a judge at the Punjab and Haryana high court when the murder took place, of shielding her.
