Sippy Sidhu murder : HC bench recuses from hearing bail plea

A Punjab and Haryana high court bench on Monday referred the bail plea of Kalyani Singh, the daughter of a Himachal Pradesh high court judge, who was arrested for the murder of national-level shooter and lawyer Sippy Sidhu, to the chief justice to assign it to some other bench

A Punjab and Haryana high court bench on Monday referred the bail plea of Kalyani Singh, the daughter of a Himachal Pradesh high court judge, who was arrested for the murder of national-level shooter and lawyer Sippy Sidhu, to the chief justice to assign it to some other bench.

It was on July 27 that justice Chitkara had asked parties concerned to submit their responses, if they had any objections to the court taking up the bail plea. (HT PHOTO)

The high court bench of justice Anoop Chitkara passed the order after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the complainant’s family submitted that they had objections to the bench hearing the matter. Justice Chitkara, comes from the Himachal Pradesh high court. Kalyani’s mother justice Sabina is currently posted at the Himachal Pradesh high court, but was elevated as judge at the Punjab and Haryana high court.

It was on July 27 that justice Chitkara had asked parties concerned to submit their responses, if they had any objections to the court taking up the bail plea. However, Kalyani’s family had told court that it had no objection to the bench hearing this case.

Kalyani, 36, was arrested on June 15 after she was found “evasive and deceptive” in her responses by the CBI during the probe. The CBI claimed that it had found strong evidence of her presence at the Sector-27 park where Sukhmanpreet Singh Sidhu, alias Sippy Sidhu, 34, an old friend of the accused, was shot dead on September 20, 2015. On July 13, a Chandigarh CBI court had rejected her bail plea observing that the investigation was at a crucial stage and there was apprehension of her pressuring the witnesses.

Her bail plea before the high court argues that the trial court failed to appreciate that the investigating agency had not been able to bring up or point out any new evidence that would indict the petitioner “beyond whatever evidence that was available with them at the time of filing report under Section 173 of the CrPC on December 7, 2020”. The plea also claims that the petitioner has been targeted only on the basis of allegations levelled by Sippy’s family.