Sippy Sidhu murder: Trial resumes after 3 weeks, third eyewitness examined

As trial in the Sippy Sidhu murder case resumed on Tuesday, the third eyewitness was examined by the prosecution in court.
The eyewitness supported the prosecution theory during his examination-in-chief.
The case, which is meant to be fast-track, was adjourned four times ever since the advocates strike against the proposed draft of the Tenancy Act began on July 22.
As advocates called off the strike post lunch on Tuesday, the special CBI court of Alka Malik resumed trial in the 2015 murder case, where Kalyani Singh, 37, is the prime accused.
Following the eyewitness’ examination, the case was adjourned to August 17, when the witness will be cross-examined by the defence counsel.
The witness stays in the house adjoining the park in Sector 27 where Sippy was murdered nine years ago.
He stated before the court that on September 20, 2015, he had an early dinner at 8 pm. After watching the 9 pm news, he, along with his domestic help, came out for a stroll in the front courtyard of his house. He heard a gunshot and recognised it as a fire from a .12-bore gun.
Out of curiosity, he started walking towards the boundary wall of his house, which separates from the park as the gunshots were heard from that side. By the time he reached there, two more gunshots were fired in quick succession.
In the meantime, his domestic help also came running towards him. He tried to look over the wall and saw a person of medium height walking away from the wall side. The person stopped and turned back. He immediately got down on his knees, and told his domestic help to stay quiet and not move. At that time, his wife was present in the bedroom on the first floor of the house.
In the previous hearings, two other witnesses, including the wife of the third eyewitness who had identified Kalyani in previous hearings, were examined by the prosecution.
It was on May 5 this year, nine years after the murder that the CBI court ordered day-to-day hearing of the trial while framing charges against Kalyani. The recording of evidence in the case began on July 9 when a key prosecution witness was examined.
Kalyani has been charged under Sections 302 (murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to protect the offender) of the Indian Penal Code.
National-level shooter and lawyer Sukhmanpreet Singh, better known as Sippy Sidhu, 34, was shot dead at a park in Sector 27 on September 20, 2015. His family has accused Kalyani of killing him as they had turned down her marriage proposal.
Sippy was the grandson of late justice SS Sidhu, a former Punjab and Haryana high court judge, and Kalyani is the daughter of retired Himachal Pradesh high court judge justice Sabina.
The sensational case was initially probed by the Chandigarh Police. But in 2016, it was transferred to the CBI following protests by Sippy’s family. The central agency had at one point of time also filed an “untraced” report. But in June 2022, she was arrested by CBI and later charged with murder. She has been out on bail since September 2022.