‘Some measure of solace…’: Priyadarshini Mattoo’s family after killer denied early release

The Supreme Court in 2010, however, had commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.

Nearly three decades later, on July 1, the Delhi High Court directed the Sentence Review Board to consider afresh Singh’s case for premature release. Holding the SRB’s decision to deny Santosh, along with two other prisoners, premature release as suffering from “material procedural and legal infirmities”, the HC highlighted several lacunae in the current process undertaken by the board while deciding applications for early release of prisoners.

Government sources confirmed the latest development.

On July 27, a delegation from the All India Kashmiri Samaj (AIKS), an organisation that voices the issues of Kashmiri Pandits,  met Delhi Home Minister Ashish Sood, objecting to Singh’s premature release.

Welcoming the decision, Ravinder Pandita, President, AIKS, on Thursday said, “We are happy that the government has rejected the plea. It was a heinous crime, which doesn’t deserve anything less than a capital punishment. The judiciary and other agencies involved should take suo motu cognisance and reconsider their decision of life imprisonment.”

After the Delhi High Court had referred the case to the SRB in July, Mattoo’s Canada-based brother Hemant too had raised an objection against the decision.

Speaking to The Indian Express, he had said, “I want to know what signs of reformation he has shown. Has he apologised to my family? Has he apologised to his own family? He’s never even approached us. He still maintains his innocence.”

After the decision, Hemant said on Thursday: “This decision reaffirms not only the strength of our institutions and the current political leadership’s commitment to justice but also highlights the crucial role of civil society, particularly the Justice for Priyadarshini Mattoo team who have tirelessly fought against the injustice endured before and after the crime. It brings some measure of solace to a family that has long borne the burden of this tragedy.”

On January 23, 1996, while Priyadarshini was alone at home, Santosh was seen by a neighbour entering her house in the evening. She was later found lying under her bed, with a room heater’s cord wrapped around her neck — she had been brutally raped and murdered.

Singh, an IPS officer’s son, had been pursuing her relentlessly in the months leading up to her death.

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