SC to hear Santosh's appeal in Priyadarshini murder case tomorrow

New Delhi, Feb 18 (UNI) The Supreme Court will hear tomorrow the appeal of Santosh Kumar Singh, son of a retired IPS officer, against the death sentence awarded to him by the Delhi High Court in the Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case.

Mattoo, the batchmate of Singh, was murdered for refusing to marry the convict in 1999.

Santosh was acquitted by the trial court in 2001. However, the order of acquittal was reversed by the High Court.

The convict is seeking a stay on the death sentence till the final disposal of his appeal.

The petitioner in his appeal contented that it was a case of ''no evidence and the High Court has committed a grave error of law by interfering with the order of acquittal and a DNA report has not confirmed the allegations of rape against him.'' According to him, he neither raped nor murdered Mattoo.

The prosecution, however, contended that the piece of broken visor of Santosh's helmet was recovered from the Vasant Kunj residence of the deceased and Mattoo had lodged several complaints against him for stalking her. But the police did not take any action as his father, J P Singh, was at that time Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police.

UNI