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Sippy Sidhu murder case: Kalyani was deceptive during psych exam, CFSL expert tells court
Expert tells court the accused avoided direct eye contact, was closed, guarded and defensive when issues relevant to the murder case were discussed
During the resumed hearing of the Sippy Sidhu murder case on Thursday, statements of senior scientific officer, forensic psychology division, Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), New Delhi, were recorded before the court of CBI special judge Alka Malik.
The official, who is a psychological assessment expert, had interviewed Kalyani Singh, the prime accused in the 2015 murder case, while she was in CBI’s five-day custody in June 2022.
The psychological expert told court that it was inferred after her interview that Kalyani appeared deceptive in her statements about her knowledge and involvement in the crime.
Dr Rajneeta Kumari, a psychological assessment expert, deposed before the court that she had received a request for psychological examination of Kalyani following her arrest in 2022.
“On June 20, 2022, we came to Chandigarh and went to the CBI office when Kalyani was in CBI custody,” she said.
The prosecution witness added that she interviewed Kalyani and made some observations. “Observations included personal profile of subject (accused), psychological and medical status and psycho behavioural assessment,” she said.
“During the psycho-behavioural assessment, it was observed that she responded negatively and avoided direct eye contact when relevant issues were discussed. She adopted a closed, guarded and defensive interpersonal interaction style towards the examiners,” said Dr Kumari.
She added that Kalyani, during her interview, was found physically normal and mentally alert at the time of her questioning of forensic psychological assessment.
Supply copies of her interview to defence: Court
After copies of Kalyani’s psychological interview by the CFSL psychology expert were sought by the defence counsel, the CBI special judge ordered that the documents be supplied to both the defence and the prosecution.
“Since the documents sought for are the basis of preparation of the report in question, to ensure fairness in trial, the witness is under direction from this court to get the photocopies of all the above mentioned documents contained in her file done, and same shall be supplied both to the prosecution as well as defence,” said the court.
During cross-examination of the expert, defence counsel had requested that photocopy of the file brought by the witness, containing formats and interview of accused (spanning nine pages), questionnaires (five pages), draft report (six pages), statements (13 pages), email and acknowledgment papers (three pages), should be supplied.
However, the public prosecutor objected to this, detailing that the witness stated before this court that she was not authorised to give a photocopy of the file to the defence counsel and can only be given after the approval of the CFSL director, Delhi.
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 accused Kalyani of killing him as they had turned down her marriage proposal.
Sippy was the grandson of late justice SS Sidhu, a former Punjab and Haryana high court judge, and Kalyani is the daughter of retired Himachal Pradesh high court judge justice Sabina.
