SC cuts death sentence to life for DU law student Mattoo's killer

Wednesday, 6 October 2010 By Legally India Bar, Bench & Litigation

The Supreme Court reduced the Delhi High Court’s death sentence handed down to law student Priyadarshini Mattoo’s rape and murder convict Santosh Kumar to life imprisonment in today’s ruling in the 14-year old trial.

The apex court bench consisting of justices H S Bedi and C K Prasad upheld the conviction of Kumar but delivered a lesser punishment in a judgement it had reserved in July this year after Kumar has gone in appeal against the 2006 decision of the Delhi High Court.

Papers reported that bench held: “To our mind, certain things are in favour of appellant (Singh). We are converting the punishment of death sentence into the life imprisonment.”

The Delhi High Court had held Kumar guilty of rape and murder of his classmate Mattoo in October 2006 and granted him capital punishment after his acquittal by the trial court in 1999.

An advocate and son of a former IPS officer Kumar had raped and killed the final year law student Mattoo in January 1996.

The Times of India has a chronology of events in the case.

Comments

Anonymous guest 6 Oct 2010, 19:01

+0 -0

Why is it that the poor alone in India are awarded the death sentence? What was it about Mr. Santosh Kumar that he deserved commuting of the sentence.

The judge in the matter has apparently stated "To our minds, the balance sheet is slightly in favour of the appellant and therefore we believe the ends of justice will be met if his death sentence is commuted to life."

Quite shocking.

Anonymous guest 6 Oct 2010, 19:04

"An advocate and son of a former IPS officer Kumar had raped and killed the final year law student Matoo in January 2006."

Are you sure it s 2006.... to my knowledge, trial court acquitted santosh kumar in 1999. Then how come he committed a crime in 2006. Please check

[You are correct, it was of course 1996, thank you for pointing out the unintentional error. -Ed]

Anonymous guest 6 Oct 2010, 21:00

would like to check out what was in "favour" of the accused.

Anonymous guest 6 Oct 2010, 21:09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priyadarshini_Mattoo

Anonymous guest 6 Oct 2010, 21:52

The longer the trial takes, from the trial court to the Supreme Court, it seems the offence gets attenuated. There should be a constitutionally provided time frame to complete the investigation as well as to complete the trial and the parliament should re-think and re-frame the death penalty provision in IPC. What may be the rarest or rare for one Judge may not be for another...there is so much of subjectivity. I think a law student committing rape and murder of his class-mate would be rarest of the rare.

Anonymous guest 7 Oct 2010, 00:51

Kian .. Mattoo was the convict junior not classmate.

Anonymous guest 7 Oct 2010, 03:31

And introduce mandatory sentencing laws - like they have in England and America. Judges hate it as it takes away their discretion, but once conviction has been achieved mandatory sentencing is the way to go.

Can anyone explain to readers why one miserable Bong sod, Dhananjay Chatterjee was fit case for rarest of rare.

Two weeks ago, in the US state of Virginia executed its first woman convict (teresa lewis) in about 100 years (and the first in the US since 2005) by lethal injection. Yes, the victims relatives got to watch, so also a select group from the press.

Her crime? Plotting to have her husband and stepson killed so that they could pocket the not so high insurance money (about 250K USD). Curiously, one of the guys who actually pulled the trigger and killed the two, got life sentence. The other no-hoper committed suicide in prison.

Anonymous guest 7 Oct 2010, 04:38

shame on delhi advocates for not boycotting santosh singh. the delhi bar is the most immoral and corrupt.

rajiv 17 Oct 2010, 18:03

Dhananjay Chatterji was sentenced to death but Santosh Singh has been spared. Hon'ble Supreme Court do decide the things keeping legal aspects in mind but still what is it that makes Santosh Singh's case different from Dhananjay Chatterji. Just because Santosh was able to give a run to police and courts for such a long time to live a peaceful life can be given weightage as against his grotesque and cold-blooded act. Rape is a heinous crime and the law precedents be set equally for all.

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