Santosh Singh convicted in Priyadarshini Mattoo case

New Delhi, Oct 17: The Delhi High Court today convicted Santosh Kumar Singh, the son of a senior IPS officer, in the Priyadarshini Mattoo rape and murder case, setting aside his acquittal by a trial court in 1999.

A division bench of Justices RS Sodhi and PK Bhasin called perverse the trial court's verdict acquitting Santosh.

Holding Santosh guilty of Priyadarshini's rape and murder, the judges observed that they would decide on October 30 whether to award him death sentence or life imprisonment. The CBI has pressed for the death sentence.

The court observed that circumstantial evidences against Santosh were fairly strong.

Santosh, a law student in the University of Delhi and the son of a senior officer of the Indian Police Service, had raped and murdered Priyadarshini, a third-year law student, in January 1996.

Priyadarshini was strangled to death in the bedroom of her South Delhi apartment with 19 injuries on her person.

The trial court had acquitted Santosh mainly due to alleged lapses and unfairness on the part of the prosecution and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which investigated the case.

Santosh was arrested by the CBI immediately afterwards.

He had always been present in the court during the entire hearings. He was always meticulously taking notes.

The judgement afforded Priyadarshini's father Chamanlal Mattoo an opportunity to open up to the media. Heaping effusive encomiums on the judiciary, he said, "Satyamev Jayate (Truth alone triumphs)".

Chamanlal said the judgement belonged as much to him as to the people taking cudgels on his behalf.

"I can't thank enough to the people. My belief in the Indian judiciary stands vindicated. The hearings have been extremely transparent," he said.

Expressinge huge relief, he expressed gratitude to the media as well in building mass support for a cause, which at one time, had seemed almost lost.

Mattoo's close friends had been unsparing in criticising the CBI for allowing many loopholes to Santosh' advantage during the hearings.

UNI