Priyadarshini Mattoo rape-murder: Does convict deserve early release? HC says it finds ‘element of reformation’ in him

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday set aside a decision by the Sentence Review Board (SRB) to reject a petition for premature release filed by the convict in the rape and murder of law student Priyadarshini Mattoo in the national capital in 1996.

 

Justice Sanjeev Narula directed the board to consider the plea afresh, saying he had found some element of reformation in the convict, Santosh Kumar Singh, who is serving life imprisonment in the case.

 

"I have found some element of reformation in him. The SRB decision is set aside and I have referred back the matter to SRB to consider it afresh," the judge said.

 

Singh had approached the high court in 2023, challenging the SRB decision taken at its meeting held in October 2021.

 

Framing certain guidelines to be followed while considering prisoners’ pleas, the court said the SRB must conduct a psychological assessment of the convicts, which was not done in this case.

 

During the hearing, senior advocate Mohit Mathur, representing Singh, told the court that the convict had already undergone 25 years of incarceration, including remission.

 

Mathur said the conduct of his client has been satisfactory which showed that he has reformed and has lost every potential for committing the crime.

 

Mattoo, who was 25 at the time of the incident, was raped and murdered at her apartment in Delhi in January 1996. The accused, who was also a law student at Delhi University, was acquitted by the trial court for lack of evidence on December 3, 1999.

 

The high court, however, overruled the decision on October 27, 2006, holding him guilty of rape and murder and awarded him the death penalty.

 

Singh challenged the HC verdict in the Supreme Court. The top court in 2010 upheld his conviction but commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.

India