Priyadarshini Mattoo case: Supreme Court gives life term to Santosh Singh, family to file review

A Supreme Court bench of judges HS Bedi and CK Prasad upheld the conviction of Santosh Kumar Singh, a former IPS officer’s son for raping and murdering Priyadarshini Mattoo, but set aside the death penalty handed to him by Delhi high court in 2006.

However, the court said the “horrendous crime” had happened because Santosh’s parents were over-indulgent. Santosh had been stalking and intimidating Priyadarshini but the police refused to help the Mattoos because Santosh’s father had influence.

The judges said many ghastly crimes happen when “an accused belongs to a category with unlimited power or pelf or even more dangerously, a volatile cocktail of the two”. Inside the high-security Tihar jail, Santosh Singh said, “I am happy with this judgment.”

But Priyadarshini’s father Chaman Lal Mattoo and lawyer Ashok Bhan didn’t rule out the possibility of filing a review.

“The apex court has not done justice to me or my daughter who fell victim to a spoilt brat,” Chaman Lal Mattoo, Priyadarshini’s father, said.

“I will not leave the battle for justice for my daughter midway. I will fight the case till my last breath,” he said.

Priyadarshini was raped and killed by Santosh Kumar Singh on January 23, 1996. The same year, Singh’s trial began in a sessions court. On December 3, 1999, the court acquitted Singh, giving him benefit of doubt and castigated CBI for the shoddy probe.

Amidst the heat of acquittals in a series of crimes against women, such as the Jessica Lal case, CBI challenged the order in high court in 2000. Then high court judge RS Sodhi quashed the acquittal and gave death sentence to Santosh. By then, Santosh had married and had a daughter.

While commuting Singh’s sentence, the apex court said Singh was young at the time of the incident, and after his acquittal by the trial court he got married and become a father, and there was nothing to suggest that he was not capable of reforming.