Contending that it had enough circumstantial evidence, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday asserted before the Delhi High Court that Santosh Singh, accused of raping and killing Priyadarshani Mattoo, should be awarded death sentence for the offence.

Appearing before a Division Bench comprising Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin, Additional Solicitor General Amarendra Sharan said: "In cases like rape and murder, the High Court has given death sentence to the accused. Therefore, I will argue for stringent sentence for the accused later."

He told the bench that despite the fact that in the DNA report, the genetic material of the deceased matched with that of the accused and this was also corroborated in the statement of the doctor who conducted the test.

However, the trial judge failed to appreciate various circumstantial evidence, Sharan said while terming the rejection of the DNA report by the trial court as 'erroneous.'

He said on the basis of all circumstantial evidence, instead of holding the accused guilty for the offence, 'the trial court gave him benefit of doubt which is unsustainable.'