The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgment on the plea of Santosh Kumar Singh challenging the verdict of the Delhi High Court convicting and awarding death sentence to him for rape and murder of Delhi University student Priyadarshini Mattoo over 14 years ago.
The SRB, at its meeting, recommended release of 22 convicts on completion of their sentences and rejected 86 other cases, including the three high-profile murder cases.
"I am not satisfied with the sentence. This can be discussed only by the legal experts as it is quite evident that even the Supreme Court has upheld the verdict of the Delhi High Court," Chaman Lal Mattoo said.
Priyadarshini Mattoo's father has said that the conviction of Santosh Singh is a step in the right direction and that the common man can now breathe with ease.
Santosh was earlier let off due to lack of evidence.
The former IPS officer's son had been sentenced to death by the Delhi high court in the case relating to rape and murder of the Delhi college student.
37-year-old Santosh Kumar said in the appeal that the observation of the high court while convicting him did not find any basis against the evidence on record.
The Delhi high court judge, who had awarded death penalty to Santosh Kumar Singh in the Priyadarshini Mattoo case, on Wednesday said that he did not view the Supreme Court's decision of commuting the sentence as a failure of judicial system as apex court judges are 'wiser'.
Manu Sharma, the convict in the murder case of Jessica, and Mattoo's killer Santosh Singh were among 204 who had approached the board, headed by state Home Minister Satyendar Jain, the sources said.
Justice Mukta Gupta granted a three-week parole to Santosh Kumar Singh, who is serving life term for the 1996 rape and murder of law student Priyadarshini Mattoo, to appear for LLM examination.
Transcript of chat with Indu Jalali.
The bench also reiterated that it would take up the appeal proceedings only after completing hearing in the Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case
During a meeting Priyadarshini's father Chaman Lal Mattoo in August, the CBI director had given an assurance that everything would be done for speedy justice.
Rediff.com looks at other sensational murder mysteries that left India shell-shocked.
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