Sentence in St Stephen's college girl murder case on Mar 15

New Delhi, Mar 12 (UNI) A fast track court in the city today fixed March 15 for pronouncing the quantum of punishment in a case in which a girl from capital's prestigious St Stephen's college was murdered by a tutor in April 1999.

Additional Sessions Judge Bharat Parashar fixed March 15 for pronouncing the sentence in the seven-year-old case, after arguments over quantum of punishment ended today.

Terming the murder as 'gruesome', the prosecution described the death as an exemplary punishment while the defence sought leniency on family grounds saying the convict needed to look after his aged mother.

20-year-old Priyanka was murdered in her Adarsh Nagar house in North Delhi. Uttam Kumar, who was a tutor to Priyanka's younger brother Vibhor, was said to be attracted to the second year college student whom he used to teach earlier. He was angry that Priyanka had been engaged to someone else.

On April 19, 1999, when Priyanka and her mother returned from market, Kumar dragged the student inside a bathroom and bolted the door. Her family tried to open the door but in vain. Later police was called which broke open the door only to find Priyanka dead with her neck been slashed by a knife. Kumar was arrested shortly afterwards.

The city court had found him guilty in the case on March 7 saying ''lust'' had driven him to the ''barbaric'' act.

UNI