Sippy Sidhu murder: ‘Step towards justice’ after many ups & downs

“There were many reasons why we were not able to gather enough evidence against Kalyani Singh, daughter of the then sitting justice in Punjab and Haryana High Court, despite the fact that we had identified a mehandi artist whose phone was reportedly used by Kalyani Singh for calling Sippy Sidhu to meet her in a public park in Sector 27. A woman resident whose house is situated near the park in Sector 27 had claimed to identify the woman with a pony tail who accompanied Sippy Sidhu prior to his murder. Even a laptop of Sippy Sidhu, which reportedly contained certain objectionable pictures of the accused was found from the victim’s house,” said a police officer requesting anonymity. The police officer was attached with the case investigation at the initial stage.

R P Upadhyay, the 1991 batch AGMUT cadre IPS officer, was then Inspector General of Police (IGP), Chandigarh. Sukhchain Singh Gill, the 2003 batch Punjab cadre IPS officer, was then SSP, Chandigarh.

Prior to handing over the investigation to the CBI, accused Kalyani Singh, who was then a prime suspect, was grilled twice by the Chandigarh Police at police lines, Sector 26, in October 2016. The second questioning of Kalyani Singh was videotaped.

“Prior to arresting Kalyani Singh today, we grilled her many times. We collected relevant evidence, including a partial registration number of a white Zen which was used by the assailants to escape. There are many things which are yet to be corroborated,” a senior CBI officer said.

In 2017, the CBI had put out an advertisement in newspapers stating that there is a 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 party to the offence. In December 2020, the CBI had filed an untraced report in the court and mentioned that investigation may be allowed to open and continue as it has brought strong suspicion qua the role of a woman to eliminate Sippy Sidhu.

Meanwhile, an apple iPhone which was found near Sippy’s body had been a mystery for the police and the CBI for at least three years. Investigation agencies expected to receive vital information about the assailants from the iPhone which could only operate with the finger expression of Sippy. Later, the iPhone was opened in a forensic laboratory.