INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - OCTOBER 2006
THE MONTH THAT WAS...

SANTOSH SINGH FOUND GUILTY IN MATTOO MURDER CASE

  Santosh Kumar Singh, prime accused in the Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case, has been found guilty by the Delhi high court. He could face a death sentence or life imprisonment, to be announced on October 30.

   Convicting Santosh Singh, the HC termed the acquittal order passed by a trial court as perverse. Singh, a practising criminal lawyer, and son of a retired IPS officer, was immediately taken into custody on the direction of the court.

   “The acquittal order passed by the trial judge in 1999 has shocked the conscience of the judiciary,” a bench comprising Justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin said. The overall analysis of the circumstances and the unimpeachable evidence proved beyond doubt that Singh had committed the crime. “We are of the view to convict him under Sections 302 (murder) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code.”

   CBI counsel Mukta Gupta asked for death sentence and Santosh Singh's advocate R K Naseem pleaded for life imprisonment.

   The 71-page verdict pointed to the misuse of power by police officials to shield their kin from prosecution in criminal offences. The bench observed that such conduct by police officials would only encourage their children to commit crimes with impunity. The need for an independent agency to handle cases involving the children of police officials was also stressed.

   The court agreed with the trial's court observation that the police was reluctant to act on repeated complaints of harassment and stalking of Priyadarshini, as Santosh's father was a senior IPS officer in the Delhi Police. Criticising the police's failure, the bench said: “Junior staff do not react to complaints against the relatives of their fraternity,” and that the rule of law seems to not be applicable for “those who enforce the law nor for their near relatives”. It was recommended that when a crime is committed by such people, there “should be a machinery (of justice) which is uninfluenced and independent of such persons.”

   Priyadarshini, a 23-year-old law student in Delhi University, was raped and murdered by Singh at her house at Vasant Kunj in south Delhi on January 23, 1996. Singh's acquittal three years later by the lower court had shocked Delhi because the trial judge had said that while he knew the accused had committed the crime, he was giving him the benefit of doubt because of lack of evidence.

   While acquitting Singh, who was a year senior to Priyadarshini in the university, the trial judge, G P Thareja, had also accused the CBI of tampering with evidence. The CBI then filed an appeal in the high court saying the trial court had overlooked key evidence, like the fact that Singh had been sighted outside Priyadarshini's residence shortly before the crime.