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'We expected better from the court'
Updated On: 07 October, 2010 09:21 AM IST | | MiD DAY Correspondent
Priyadarshini Mattoo's family disappointed with apex court decision. Her killer's death sentence commuted to life in prison
Priyadarshini Mattoo's family disappointed with apex court decision. Her killer's death sentence commuted to life in prison Priyadarshini Mattoo
There was nothing much to celebrate for Priyadarshini Mattoo's family on Wednesday as the Supreme Court decided on the review petition of the rapist and killer of Delhi University law student. 
The apex court commuted the death sentence given to Santosh Kumar Singh by the Delhi High Court and awarded life sentence.
Delivering the judgement in a jam-packed courtroom, Bench comprising Justices H S Bedi and C K Prasad of the Supreme Court said, "To our mind, certain things are in favour of appellant (Singh). We are converting the punishment of death sentence into the life imprisonment."
Shattered and dismayed by the judgement, CL Mattoo, Priyadarshini's father said, "I am not satisfied with the sentence. We had expected better treatment from the courts. He was not an ordinary criminal and, therefore, the case was the rarest of rare category. If courts keep lowering the sentence of criminals, the whole civil society will be in danger one day."
"There were various instances where the convicts had managed to come out and proved too dangerous for common people," he added.
In 1995, a year before she died, Priyadarshini, a third year law student, had complained that Santosh Singh, who was then 24 and her senior in the college was stalking her. On January 23 in 1996, Singh was seen trying to enter the Vasant Kunj flat where Priyadarshini lived. She was found dead by her domestic help. She had been raped, strangled with an electric wire, and her face had been battered with a motorcycle helmet. Singh's helmet was found shattered - this later formed part of the evidence against him.
Mattoo's lawyer, Ashok Bhan, said that he would file a review or curative petition seeking enhancement of the punishment after going through the verdict. However, the CBI counsel said that the agency was 'satisfied' that the High Court verdict of conviction has been upheld.
Priyadarshini's friends also were not happy with the judgement commuting the death sentence. "While we are happy with the upholding of the conviction, we are unhappy at the fact that the sentence has been reduced to life," they said.
Singh, son of a former IPS officer, now lodged in Jail No 2 with 1,000 other prisoner, has spent almost seven years in Tihar jail.
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