Priyadarshani killer knocks Supreme Court door

New Delhi, Jan 23: Santosh Kumar Singh, the prime accused in the Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, challenging the Delhi High Court judgement convicting and sentencing him to death.

The petitioner has contended in his appeal that his case does not fall in the category of the rare of the rarest cases and the High Court has committed a grave error of law by reversing the trial court's judgement of acquittal.

The petitioner, further, contended that there was no cogent evidence against him warranting his conviction.

He has also prayed for setting aside the impugned High Court judgement delivered in October 30, 2006 and requested for the stay of his death sentence till the final disposal of his appeal.

Santosh Kumar Singh, a lawyer by profession, was earlier acquitted by the trial court in 2001, which led to huge public outcry. The trial judge G P Thareja said in his judgement that he was totally convinced that Santosh is the killer of Priyadarshani Mattoo but there was lack of evidence to convict him in the case. He also reprimanded the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for conducting shoddy investigation in the case in order to shield the culprit.

However, the High Court, in its judgement said that for a period of two years, the accused had made life of Priyadarshani Mattoo a living hell, but despite several complaints of harrasment lodged by her, no action was taken by the police because of the influence of his IPS father, who was a Joint Commissioner in Delhi police.

The High Court had also noted that Santosh raped and killed Priyadarshani, while she was was alone at her Vasant Vihar residence on the fateful day of January 23, 1996, exactly 11 years ago.

The special leave petition (SLP) was filed in the Supreme Court on January 19, 2007.

UNI