New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) will hear on Sunday a petition filed by Santosh Kumar Singh, challenging his death sentence for raping and murdering Priyadarshni Mattoo 11 years ago.
Currently in Tihar jail, Singh, the son of a former senior IPS officer, Singh, has contended in his appeal against the Delhi High Court (HC) judgement that the "acquittal by the trial court was correct and proper".
The appeal has been listed for hearing by a bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan.
In his appeal, 37-year-old Singh said that the observation of the HC while convicting him did not find any basis against the evidence on record.
The HC, which conducted a day-to-day hearing on the case following a public outcry, in its judgement on October 27, 2006 had reversed the trial court verdict acquitting him of the offence of raping and murdering 23-year-old Mattoo.
Justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin while setting aside the lower court's verdict, had termed it as "perverse" and sentenced Singh to death, saying he deserved nothing less.
Singh's acquittal by Additional Sessions Judge G P Thareja on December 3, 1999 had shocked the nation as the judge had said that he knew the accused had committed the crime but gave him the benefit of doubt because of lack of evidence.
But has CBI decided to grant clemency to Singh? Last week, in an official booklet circulated to the media by the Central investigating agency, Singh was stated to have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
The glaring mistake about the Mattoo case figures in the official document of the agency at a time when it's drawn severe flak from the public as well as the court for its bad handling of the case.
News agency PTI, which first brought the issue to the fore, contacted CBI officials for reaction on the gaffe, but the babus are not willing to talk. Those who spoke on the condition of anonymity sought to dismiss it as a printing error.
The Mattoo trial lasted for six years. A retrial appeal, filed by the CBI in 2000, was taken on priority basis following a public outcry and media pressure.
Mattoo, a Delhi University Law student, was raped and murdered at her Vasant Kunj residence in South Delhi on January 23, 1996.
Singh, son of J P Singh, the then Inspector-General of Police, Pondicherry began harassing Mattoo in January and February 1995.
In August, November and December that year he began stalking her, telephoning her at her residence and at a hospital where her mother had been admitted, and stopping her car and shouting at her.
Mattoo lodged 11 police complaints against him, following which, he apologised to her.
She was provided with a personal security officer by the police on the orders of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, but Santosh continued to harass her.
(With PTI inputs)
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