Chandigarh: On June 15, the Central Bureau of Investigation claimed to have cracked the seven-year-old case of the murder of an advocate with the sensational arrest of the daughter of the Himachal Pradesh high court's acting Chief Justice, Sabina Singh. The advocate's mother has told The Wire that the judge's family played a part in delaying investigation.

Kalyani Singh was sent to a four-day CBI remand by the special CBI court in Chandigarh after she was presented before the court following her arrest.

The remand paper of the investigative agency submitted in the court claimed that the accused had been in a close relationship with deceased Sukhmanpreet 'Sippy' Singh Sidhu, who was also a national-level shooter.

According to the investigating agency, Kalyani had wanted to marry Sidhu but was refused by the parents of the deceased. Sidhu, who was murdered on the night of September 20, 2015, was also learned to have released her private photographs to family and friends, according to CBI.

Kalyani allegedly contacted Sidhu two days before his murder through a third person's phone and convinced him to meet her at a park in Chandigarh's Sector 27 on the night of September 20, 2015.

According to the CBI, there is evidence confirming the presence of Kalyani Singh with Sippy Sidhu in the park on that day. The agency further claimed that one unknown assailant and accused Kalyani Singh killed Sidhu by using a firearm. Both of them were seen running away from the spot.

According to CBI, during her earlier examination Kalyani was evasive in answering relevant questions and was also found deceptive in the polygraph test on a question related to Sidhu’s murder.

Suspicion

CBI, which took over the murder investigation in January 2016, had allegedly suspected her involvement for long.

Soon after taking over the probe it also put out an advertisement in newspapers in which it acknowledged the presence of a woman in the murder spot and also gave an opportunity to the woman to approach them if she was not an accused.

"She would be considered a party to the offence if she failed to turn up before the agency," the advertisement had stated. CBI sleuths later announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for anybody providing a clue that could help crack the case.

While it is not clear what took CBI several years, sources said that CBI wanted to gather more clues before arresting the daughter of a judge, who was then posted in the Punjab and Haryana high court in Chandigarh at the time of Sidhu’s murder. Justice Sabina was later transferred to the high court bench in Jaipur before joining the Himachal high court as the acting Chief Justice last month.

Even as CBI filed its final report before a Chandigarh court in 2020, it asked the court to allow it to continue with the probe to investigate the role of the said suspect.

As per CBI’s remand paper, it now claimed to have enough evidence to prosecute her in Sidhu’s murder case.

CBI claimed in the remand application that during her remand period, she would be made to identify firearms used to kill Sidhu. Besides, CBI will make an effort to recover the murder weapon and vehicle used in the crime, in addition to unveiling the overall conspiracy and the role of the other unknown assailant.

'Vindicated'

Sidhu's family, meanwhile, says that the arrest of the accused has vindicated their stand.

Talking to The Wire, Sidhu’s mother, Deepinder Kaur Sidhu, said that she had been saying from day one that Kalyani was behind his son’s murder.

"Her arrest today has proved the family's stand. We had been struggling for the last several years for justice for my son," Kaur said.

According to the family, Sidhu had returned from Canada two days before his murder.

His mother said that the local police in Chandigarh could have easily cracked the case in the beginning itself since there was enough evidence to prove that it was Kalyani who called Sippy to the park in Sector 27 on the day of the murder. "Even my son had told me before leaving home on the day of his murder that he was going to meet Kalyani," said Deepinder.

“But the pressure of her influential family derailed the investigation before it went to the CBI,” she alleged.

She alleged to The Wire that there was a delay in her arrest. “But I am hopeful that the culprits will be punished and her interrogation yields results,” she said.

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