CBI Arrests Daughter Of Himachal HC's Acting Chief Justice In Shooter Sippy Sidhu Murder Case

Sippy, who was also a corporate lawyer, was shot dead on 20 September 2015. His bullet-riddled body was found in a park in Sector 27, Chandigarh.

Indian police personnel speaks on the phone in front of the regional office of the Central Bureau of Investigation (Source: File Photo/AFP)

New Delhi: Nearly seven years after the national-level shooter and advocate Sukhmanpreet Singh Sidhu alias Sippy Sidhu was shot dead in a park in Chandigarh's Sector 27, CBI officials on Wednesday arrested Himachal Pradesh High Court judge Justice Sabina's daughter Kalyani Singh. did. Justice Sabina is the Acting Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. The agency has got four-day remand for questioning Kalyani Singh.

Sippy, who was also a corporate lawyer, was shot dead on 20 September 2015. His bullet-riddled body was found in a park in Sector 27, Chandigarh. A 12-bore gun was used in the crime and four bullets were fired from it. Chandigarh Police had registered a case of murder at Sector 26 police station. Sippy Sidhu was 35 years old. He was the grandson of Justice SS Sidhu, a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In January 2016, the case was transferred to the CBI, following which the investigating agency registered a murder case and started an investigation.

The CBI in a statement said that the case was handed over to the CBI in 2016. The central agency registered the FIR on 13 April 2016 at the request of the Chandigarh Administration. "During further investigation, the alleged involvement of the accused (Kalyani Singh) in the case came to light. Accordingly, she was questioned and arrested," a spokesperson said. "The accused was produced today (Wednesday) in the court of Special Judicial Magistrate, Chandigarh, and remanded to four days police custody," the spokesperson said.

The alleged role of the judge's daughter in the murder came to light during the CBI probe. However, they wanted to gather more leads, after which, almost seven months later, in September 2016, CBI officials announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh to anyone who could help solve the case.

In a newspaper advertisement at the time, the CBI said, "There is reason to believe that a woman was accompanying Sippy's killer at the time of the murder. The said woman is also being given this opportunity to come forward and contact us if she is innocent. Otherwise it shall be presumed that she was a party to the offence."

In December 2021, the CBI increased the reward amount to Rs 10 lakh, requesting members of the public to come forward if they have any credible information about the murder or any relevant information. However, the investigating agency failed to proceed with the case. In 2020, the CBI had also filed an "untraced report" in the court and noted that the investigation may be allowed to be opened and continued as it raised doubts over the role of a woman to eliminate Sippy Sidhu.