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Sippy Sidhu murder: Punjab and Haryana high court grants bail to Kalyani Singh
On Monday, CBI chargesheet accused Kalyani of killing Sidhu, her friend and a national-level shooter, in a Chandigarh park on September 20, 2015, after their relationship soured
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday granted bail to Kalyani Singh, accused of murdering national-level shooter and lawyer Sukhmanpreet Singh, aka Sippy Sidhu, in Chandigarh in September 2015.
Also read: Sippy Sidhu case: CBI charges Kalyani with murder, cites ‘direct’ evidence
The daughter of Himachal Pradesh high court judge justice Sabina, Kalyani Singh was arrested on June 15.
“The high court has allowed the bail plea of Kalyani Singh. The detailed order is awaited,” one of her lawyers, Arshdeep Singh Cheema, said.
On Monday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a chargesheet filed before a court, accused Kalyani of killing Sidhu after their relationship soured, citing direct evidence against her. “There is sufficient direct, documentary, electronic, oral and circumstantial evidence to substantiate the allegations against Kalyani Singh, who entered into a criminal conspiracy with an unknown person to kill Sippy Sidhu,” the CBI said.
The high court bench of justice Sureshwar Thakur had reserved the order on Kalyani’s plea on September 2.
Kalyani had approached the high court for bail on July 27 after her plea was dismissed by a trial court. She was arrested after the CBI found her responses to be “evasive and deceptive”.
Kalyani argued in her bail plea that the trial court had 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 since it filed an untraced report in December 2020. The plea also claimed that the petitioner has been targeted only on the basis of allegations levelled by Sippy Sidhu’s family.
The CBI had opposed Kalyani’s plea, arguing if given bail, she would try to influence, threaten, desist or win over witnesses. The investigating agency said it had strong evidence of Kalyani’s presence at the Sector-27 park, where the 34-year-old victim, her old friend, was shot dead on September 20, 2015.
Sippy Sidhu’s family has alleged that Kalyani had him murdered as they had turned down her marriage proposal. The CBI registered an FIR on April 13, 2016, on the request of the Chandigarh administration.
Earlier, the case was being investigated by Chandigarh Police and was transferred to the CBI amid allegations of a shoddy probe.
