The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of Santosh Kumar Singh, son of an IPS officer, in the sensational rape-murder of Delhi University law student Priyadarshini Mattoo 14 years ago, but commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment.
A bench of Justices H.S. Bedi and C.K. Prasad found no fault with the Delhi high court order convicting Singh in 2007 on the CBI’s appeal after the trial court let him off, but felt the case did not meet the Supreme Court’s “rarest of rare” criteria for capital punishment.
The decision evoked a strong reaction from the victim’s family and friends. In Jammu, Priyadarshini’s father Chaman Lal Mattoo said he was “not satisfied” with the sentence.
He said the family was “utterly disappointed and shattered”. He added: “At least the life imprisonment should not be reduced at any stage.”