NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday awarded the death sentence to Santosh Kumar Singh,

main accused in the Priyadarshini Mattoo rape-cum-murder case.

Priyadarshini Mattoo, a law student at the Campus Law Centre of Delhi University, was raped and strangulated to death on the evening of January 23, 1996 at her residence in Vasant Kunj in South Delhi.

Pronouncing the judgment after hearing R.K. Naseem, counsel for the convict, and Additional Solicitor-General (ASG) Amrendra Kumar Sharan for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a Division Bench comprising Justice R.S. Sodhi and Justice P.K. Bhasin said: "Evaluating the circumstances in favour of and against the convict, we find that the aggravating circumstances far outweigh the circumstances, which according to counsel for convict, are mitigating circumstances, although we do not consider them to be so.

"We are thus of the opinion that for a crime of this sort which has been committed with premeditation and in a brutal manner, the convict deserves no other sentence but death," the Bench said in the six-page judgment.

"Accordingly, we sentence convict Santosh Kumar Singh to death under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. He shall be hanged by the neck till death," it ruled.

Life imprisonment

For sexually assaulting Mattoo, the Bench sentenced the convict to life imprisonment under Section 376 of IPC as well as imposed on him a fine of Rs. 5,000.

The Bench on October 17 held Santosh Kumar Singh, a lawyer and son of a retired senior Delhi police officer, guilty of the two charges. The court convicted the accused on an appeal filed by the CBI against his acquittal by the trial court in 1999.

Seeking death sentence for the convict, Mr. Sharan submitted that this was a case in which the death was caused to a helpless girl in a diabolic, brutal, gruesome and inhuman manner. He stated that the crime deserved no other sentence but death. The convict would be a danger to society and the possibility of his reformation was totally ruled out, he said.

Mr. Sharan also drew the attention of the court to the repeated warnings given by the Delhi police as well as his assurances that he would not commit any act of violence or stalk the deceased. Yet, unmindful of the rule of law he continued his animal pursuit to the day of the crime, Mr. Sharan said.

The convict marked every movement of his victim, barged into her house, brutally assaulted the deceased, and raped and strangulated her, the ASG said. The convict was none other than a lawyer, and society had expected much from him.

Mr. Sharan urged the court to award the death sentence as it was the "rarest of rare cases."

"No doubt"

Concurring with his submission, the Bench said: "There is absolutely no doubt in our mind that what was required of Santosh Kumar Singh was exemplary behaviour, being the son of a police officer as also a lawyer, yet with a pre-meditated approach he continued to harass the victim for nearly two years and ultimately, in spite of repeated warnings by the police and his undertaking to them, went about committing a most ghastly act."

"The act itself sent ripples in society and showed how insecure a citizen can get against this kind of a person," it observed.

Mr. Naseem submitted that the case would not fall within the ambit of "rarest of rare cases," which should invite death sentence. He submitted that there was a possibility of the convict being reformed and rehabilitated in society.

He further said that the convict was married, had a two-year-old girl child, a mentally challenged elder brother and a sick father to look after. Keeping in view these mitigating circumstances, the end of justice would be achieved if the convict was awarded life imprisonment.

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