New Delhi   

Re-trial sought in Priyadarshini case

Staff Reporter

It should be treated at par with Jessica Lal and other such cases, says her father

NEW DELHI: Demanding a re-trial in the Priyadarshini Mattoo rape and murder case, her father C.L. Mattoo on Wednesday appealed to the people and the media to come forward and support his quest for justice for his daughter.

Appearing before the media seven years after the prime accused in the case was acquitted, Mr. Mattoo told media persons that re-trial was the only way to ensure justice as the court had made several observations about shoddy investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation while acquitting the accused.

Mr. Mattoo said he had full faith in the judiciary. "Anything that is legitimate will work and the judicial system can invoke re-trial in the case," he said.

The father of the slain young law student said the manner in which the media took up the cause of the Jessica Lal murder case, in which too all the accused were acquitted by the trial court for lack of evidence, encouraged him to make yet another effort to ensure justice for his daughter.

"I had earlier appealed to the President, the Prime Minister and even Parliament has asked the investigating agency to conduct an in-house inquiry (to ascertain the factors leading to the acquittal) to set their record straight," said Mr. Mattoo, adding that the case should be treated at par with the Jessica Lal and other high-profile cases.

Making an impassioned appeal, Mr. Mattoo, who had shied away from the media all along, said it was time to give a wake-up call to the departments of investigations to ensure that justice was done in the case of his daughter.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mattoo has also filed an application under the Right to Information Act to find out what went wrong during investigations. The prime accused in the case, Santosh Singh, son of an IPS officer, was acquitted by the court in 1999, three years after the incident.

The judge had verbally observed that he was convinced that the accused had committed the crime but there was no scientific evidence to prove him guilty. The CBI had filed a petition in the High Court challenging the verdict in 1999 but nothing happened after that.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Centre may notify Tejinder proposals
DTC driver honoured
Axe falls on two engineers
Rural girls hold their heads high
Re-trial sought in Priyadarshini case
Focus on role of private players in CWG-2010
Showers flood Delhi again
All possible steps taken to check power cuts: BSES
Woman found dead in Santro car
Hand over DJB, demands MCD
Jamia Millia V-C orders inquiry
`Criminal' held
Order in Bharti Yadav case reserved
Held for rape
Shivani case
Kandahar was a bitter pill we swallowed: BJP
CBI files charge sheet against Bangaru Laxman
Remembering the heroes
Briefly
In the Capital Today
DU waking up to special needs

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu