New Delhi: A fortnight after he was convicted for the rape and murder of law student Priyadarshini Mattoo, the Delhi High Court today sentenced Santosh Kumar Singh to death, saying he deserved nothing other than capital punishment. Pronouncing the judgement in a jam-packed court, Justice R Sodhi and P Bhasin ordered that "he (Singh) shall be hanged till death". Dressed in grey trousers and white shirt, Singh, a practising lawyer who is married and has a child, was crestfallen when the court handed down the verdict. Singh was acquitted by the Sessions Court in 1999, a judgement that was described as "perverse" by the High Court. The Sessions Judge G Thareja had held that though he knew that Singh had committed the murder, he was acquitting him because of lack of evidence. The order by the High Court Division Bench today came after three-hour long arguments by the defence and prosecution over the quantum of sentence. "We are of the opinion that a case of this kind in which the crime is committed in a pre-meditated approach and grotesque manner, the convict deserves nothing other than death penalty," the bench observed. The Delhi High Court had convicted him on October 17. Matto was raped and killed by Singh, senior to her in the law faculty of Delhi University, at her Vasant Kunj flat in southwest Delhi on January 23, 1996. Singh had been stalking her for nearly two years following which Mattoo had lodged a complaint at two different police stations.
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