Sippy murder case: Kin allowed to inspect soft data of CBI investigation

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 22

Inderjeet Singh Judicial Magistrate, CBI, Chandigarh, has allowed the family members of advocate Sukhmanpreet Singh Sidhu, alias Sippy, who was murdered in 2015, to inspect the soft data of the investigation carried out by the CBI into the case.

In an application filed before the Special Judicial Magistrate, CBI, Chandigarh, Deepinder Kaur (mother of the deceased) and Jasmanpreet Singh Sidhu (his brother) had requested the CBI to provide the soft data regarding the case. The court in the order says, “Instead of filing a reply, the public prosecutor for the CBI stated that some of the content of the soft data cannot be provided to the applicants due to its sensitive and personal nature. The data relates to the other witnesses of the case. However, the investigating officer of the case, present in the court, is directed to facilitate the inspection of the soft data available with the CBI to which the counsel for the applicant conceded and requested for adjournment to go through the record.”

The court has now fixed the next date of hearing for January 12, 2022, for filing a protest petition, if any.

Family members have demanded to provide the soft data retrieved from mobiles and a laptop and external drive of deceased Sukhmanpreet Singh Sippy. They have also demanded one DVD containing CCTV footage dated September 18, 2015, of a camera installed at Thapar Shoe Shop in Sector 19, Chandigarh. They said in the absence of the information demanded, it is not feasible to file a protest petition.

The family members of Sippy have opposed the untrace report filed by the CBI. A Punjab and Haryana High Court advocate and national shooter, Sippy was murdered on September 20, 2015. After the murder, the police had registered a case against an unknown person. When the police could not solve the case, it was transferred to the CBI in 2016. But neither the police nor the CBI has been able to reach the killers.