Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 13
The Supreme Court of Punjab and Haryana has released Kalyani Singh on bail today in the Sippy Sidhu murder case, after she charged the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with prima facie reliance on “taught and planted” witnesses to solve the crime by her arrest.
Supreme Court Justice Sureshwar Thakur claimed that the CBI had failed to live up to its credentials as the leading investigative agency in the country, expected to be “the most impartial and objective investigation”, rather than choosing to “just position of the injured party”.
Justice Thakur alleged that an undetected report in the case was surprisingly filed in 2020, although the investigation was handed over to the CBI in 2015. escorted and planted” testify only to solving the crime by arresting the petitioner.
Justice Thakur also called for a “wireless” investigation, adding that justice must be done to the injured. The investigating officer (IO) may, in his wisdom, but with the permission of the court, conduct further investigations into the uninvestigated facets of the crime. Justice Thakur asserted: “The judicial conscience of this court believes that further investigation may ultimately lead to charges of all violators involved. Moreover, full justice would also be done to the injured in addition to society as a whole.”
Judge Thakur also knocked out the IO after seeing that the investigation had begun about seven years ago. Still, no progress was made other than submitting the undetected report. On the face of it, there was undue concern on the part of the IO about somehow closing the investigation by arresting the petitioner.
He went unnoticed about the undetected report, which contained the statements of all witnesses, without anything incriminating being drawn against the petitioner.
His haste, in addition to disregarding all relevant unexamined facets, led to the apparently irresistible conclusion that “rather failed and sloppy investigations” were only being done to solve the crime, rather than a full investigation into the role of all “relevant offenders involved”.
Judge Thakur added that the court had been forced to grant the petitioner bail, especially when no evidence was presented by the investigative agency at the current stage, suggesting she is likely to flee justice or tamper with evidence of prosecution.
Court condemns IO
- HC knocked the IO saying that even seven years after the investigation, no progress had been made other than filing an undetected report
- On the face of it, there was ‘excessive concern’ on the part of the IO to close the investigation by arresting the petitioner, it noted
- Haste led to the apparently irresistible conclusion that ‘rather failed and sloppy investigation’ was only done to solve crime