Sippy murder case: In a first, CBI court to hold case management hearing tomorrow

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Chandigarh, July 4

The CBI court here has decided to hold a case management hearing in 9-year-old murder case of national-level shooter and advocate Sukhmanpreet Singh Sidhu, aka Sippy Sidhu, on July 6.

This is the first time that such a hearing is taking place as per the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in 2021 regarding criminal trials. The apex court had, in a suo motu case, issued draft guidelines with an aim to expedite trials in criminal cases.

In the order, the Supreme Court observed that the courts in all criminal trials should, at the beginning of the trial i.e. after summoning of the accused and framing of charges, hold a preliminary case management hearing. This hearing may take place immediately after the framing of charge(s).

During this hearing, the court should consider the total number of witnesses and classify them as eyewitness, material witness, formal witness, who would be asked to produce documents, etc, and experts. At that stage, the court should consider whether the parties are in a position to admit any document, including report of experts, or any document that may be produced by the accused or relied on by her or him. If so, the exercise of admission/denial may be carried out under Section 294 of the CrPC, for which a specific date may be fixed.

During this hearing, the schedule of recording of witnesses should be fixed by giving consecutive dates. Each date so fixed should be scheduled for a specific number of witnesses. However, the witnesses concerned may be made bound to appear for two-three consecutive dates in case their depositions are not concluded. In case any witness does not appear or cannot be examined, the court shall indicate a fixed date for such purpose. The recording of deposition of witnesses shall then be taken up after the scheduling exercise is complete.

The murder of Sippy Sidhu (35) had taken place on September 20, 2015, in a park in Sector 27 here. Initially, the Chandigarh Police had registered a case against an unidentified person. However, the police could not solve the case. The case was then transferred to the CBI in 2016.

After six years of investigation, the CBI also failed to find the culprits and filed an untraced report in December 2020 with a request to allow further investigation. However, the court did not accept the untraced report and asked the CBI to further investigate the case. After reinvestigation, the CBI arrested Kalyani Singh on June 15, 2022, in the case. The court also framed the charges against the accused. The CBI listed the names of 172 persons as prosecution witnesses in the chargesheet.

What apex court guidelines say

• In 2021, the Supreme Court issued draft guidelines with an aim to expedite trials in criminal cases.
• As per the guidelines, the courts should hold a preliminary case management hearing at the beginning of the trial in a criminal case. This hearing may take place immediately after the framing of charge(s).
• During this hearing, the court should consider the total number of witnesses and classify them as eyewitness, material witness, formal witness, who would be asked to produce documents, etc, and experts.
• Also, the schedule of recording of witnesses should be fixed during the case management hearing.