The Hindu : New Delhi News : Counsel of Mattoo murder accused faults CBI

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Wednesday, Sep 13, 2006
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New Delhi

Counsel of Mattoo murder accused faults CBI

Staff Reporter

Defence counsel to continue arguments today also

NEW DELHI: Counsel for Santosh Kumar Singh, who was tried and acquitted in the much talked about Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case in 1999, submitted before the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had failed to match the fingerprints of his client with the chance fingerprints lifted from the spot.

Advocate R.K. Naseem was defending Singh, son of a retired senior Delhi Police officer, in the appeal filed by the CBI against his acquittal in the case.

Additional Solicitor-General Amarendra Sharan, counsel for CBI, ended his argument with an appeal to the Division Bench comprising Justice R.S. Sodhi and Justice P.K. Bhasin to award the death sentence to Santosh Singh because it was the rarest of rare cases.

Mr. Naseem submitted that the investigating agency had lifted 12 chance fingerprints from the spot but failed to match any of them with Santosh Singh's fingerprints.

He further stated that the agency had also recovered hair from the spot but it failed to match it with those of the accused.

The investigating agency also failed to match glass pieces lifted from the spot with the visor of the helmet of accused, he said, adding that the colour of the visor of his client was black while the glass pieces lifted from the spot were of a different hue.

The CBI had also collected two pieces of glass from Nelson Mandela Road but those were also not part of Santosh Singh's visor, Mr. Naseem submitted.

`Improved statement'

Referring to evidence given by the personal security officer (PSO) of Priyadarshini Mattoo, Mr. Naseem submitted that he had made an improvement on his police statement when he told the trial court that he had seen Santosh Singh in the Delhi University campus with a helmet with black colour of visor.

He will continue his argument on Wednesday.

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