Evidence has been tampered with: Santosh Singh

New Delhi, Sep 12 (UNI) Santosh Singh, the prime accused in the Priyadarshini Mattoo rape and murder case, today said in the Delhi High Court that evidence collected from the victim's house had been tampered with and he had been falsely implicated in the case.

Singh's counsel R K Naseem said a strand of hair recovered from Mattoo's jacket was neither Mattoo's nor Singh's.

''Besides, none of the 12 fingerprints collected from the place of crime matched with Singh,'' Mr Naseem added.

He said the circumstantial evidences furnished and so heavily relied upon by the CBI had inherent lacuna as it contradicted the statements given by Rajinder Singh, head constable and Personal Security Officer (PSO) provided to the victim by the police.

The PSO claimed to have seen Singh at the Law faculty of Delhi University around 1030 hrs. However, furnishing details from the records of the University, Mr Naseem said he himself was absent till 1030 hrs.

He said blood stained clothes, broken pieces of glass and a hair strand found on Mattoo's jacket had been seized and sealed by the police in an envelope on January 23 while a black five-feet-long electric wire was put in aother envelope.

''However, when the evidences were put before the court, blood-stained clothes, broken pieces of glass, a hair strand and the electric wire were all found in different envelopes, indicating they had been tampered with,''Mr Naseem added.

CBI Investigating Officer A K Ohri had no reason to ask Delhi Police officer Lalit Mohan for the four articles, the defence counsel added.

He also charged the media with misleading the public saying they misrepresented the trial court's order.

Earlier, the trial court had acquitted Singh.

UNI SSS AK DS1631