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Sippy Sidhu murder: CBI to question Kalyani in presence of forensic psychologists
CBI gets two-day custody of daughter of acting chief justice of the HP high court on submissions in court that she was being ‘deceptive’ and ‘non-responsive’
A local court on Sunday extended the CBI custody of Kalyani Singh, an accused in the murder of national-level shooter and lawyer Sukhmanpreet Singh, alias Sippy Sidhu, by two more days.
The order was passed after CBI submitted that Kalyani was being “deceptive” and “non-responsive” and that it now wanted to interrogate her in the presence of forensic psychologists for “meaningful” responses to relevant facts.
Kalyani, 36, daughter of justice Sabina, the acting chief justice of the Himachal Pradesh high court, was arrested on June 15 in connection with Sippy’s murder at a Sector-27 park on September 20, 2015. After her four-day remand ended, she was presented in the court of duty magistrate on Sunday morning.
ALSO READ: Defence reads out e-mails ‘by Sippy’, claims it was him who wanted to marry Kalyani
Seeking seven more days of remand, public prosecutor of CBI Narender Singh claimed to have found strong evidence of her role in Sippy’s murder.
“Kalyani was in close relationship with Sippy and wanted to marry him, but the proposal was refused by him and his family. He had also leaked her objectionable photos to her family and friends, which embarrassed her,” Singh said in court.
He argued that two days before the crime happened, Kalyani, on September 18, had called Sippy from mobile phones of other people and compelled him to meet her at the Sector-27 park. “Sippy met her from September 18 to 20 and there is evidence confirming her presence at the park with Sippy,” the public prosecutor added.
Recovery of weapon crucial: CBI
“There were two shooters, one is suspect Kalyani Singh and another one is yet to be revealed by the suspect. They shot Sippy with a 12-bore shot gun. An eyewitness had seen her and another person, who had covered his face. Both ran from the spot in different cars. They also carried away the 12-bore shot gun and empty cartridges,” CBI informed the court.
CBI said recovery of the weapon was very crucial and they also wanted to take Kalyani to Sippy’s office, Panjab University and her college to reconstruct the chain of events.
CBI pushing Kalyani to confess crime: Defence lawyer
Kalyani’s counsel Sartej Narula argued that CBI was seeking further remand without making any headway in the case. “CBI wants to extort confession from her. They are pushing her to confess the crime, which she never did, just to appease the family of the deceased,” Narula said.
The counsel alleged that Sippy’s mother Deepinder Kaur was permitted to abuse Kalyani in CBI custody and threatened her of publicising her obscene pictures and videos. Also, they never investigated Kalyani in front of her lawyers. On this, the investigating officer claimed the lawyers did not make themselves available.
The counsel also discarded the prosecution’s theory that Kalyani wanted to marry Sippy.
Taking note of the submissions, the court granted two-day custodial interrogation with a direction to CBI to inform her lawyers 10-15 minutes before she is questioned.
Since Sippy’s murder, his family has been accusing Kalyani, Sippy’s former girlfriend, of being involved in the murder after 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.
