Priyadarshini Mattoo

Priyadarshini Mattoo (23 July 1970 – 23 January 1996) was a 25-year-old law student who was found raped and murdered at her house in New Delhi on 23 January 1996.

However, it turned out that Priyadarshini had passed M.Com in 1991 and the complaint was merely malicious.

In 1995, Priyadarshini had complained that Santosh Singh was harassing and stalking her.

She had been provided with a personal security officer at the time.

In retaliation, Santosh had lodged a complaint with the university alleging that she was pursuing two degrees simultaneously.

On the morning of 23 January 1996, Santosh was seen knocking for entrance into Priyadarshini's uncle's house, where she was living, in the Vasant Kunj area of Delhi.

A servant saw Santosh entering her house, apparently saying that he wanted a compromise in their legal complaints.

Subsequently, he raped her, strangled her with an electric wire, and then battered her face beyond recognition with a motorcycle helmet.

Santosh's presence in the house after the murder was also established by the prosecution.

Santosh Kumar Singh, the son of an Inspector-General of Police, had earlier been acquitted by a trial court in 1999, and the High Court decision was widely perceived in India as a landmark reversal.

This decision was overturned as the facts were not presented correctly in the lower court.

Delivering the ironical and widely criticized judgment in the trial court proceedings in 1999, the Additional Sessions Judge.

G.P. Thareja said of Santosh, that though he knew that "he is the man who committed the crime," he was forced to acquit him, giving him the benefit of doubt.

In a 450-page judgment the judge came down heavily on the role of Delhi Police; "There has been particular inaction by Delhi Police", he said, while commenting that the accused’s father may have used his official position to influence the agencies.

"The influence of the father has been there in the matter and there was deliberate inaction" (at the time his father was second in command of the police forces in Delhi).

The helmet was found with a shattered visor - however, the evidence was so poorly presented that the defense was able to discount it.

He further stated that the rule of law doesn’t seem to apply to the children of those who enforce it.

The Delhi police according to the judge, attempted to assist the accused during the investigation and trial.

"Lalit Mohan, the Inspector was instrumental in creating false evidence and false defense for the accused. The witnesses of the police including a Sub-Inspector deposed falsely".

The judgment held the CBI responsible for unfair investigation and failure to produce Virender Prasad, Mattoo’s household help, which resulted in the obstruction of justice.

The police had claimed Prasad had gone missing and was not traceable, yet in the aftermath, a journalist could easily find him in his Bihar village.

The judge added that the CBI fabricated the DNA test in the rape case as it was not obtained in accordance with the judicial procedure and could not, therefore, be admitted in evidence in view of Section 45 of the Indian Evidence Act.

The acquittal of Santosh Singh in 1999 led to the investigating agency CBI, challenge the judgment in the Delhi high court on 29 February 2000.

Justices RS Sodhi and PK Bhasin of Delhi High Court shifted from a traditional lax pace, with hearings every few months, to a day-to-day trial, and judgment was reached in 42 days.

The original acquittal was overturned and Santosh Singh was found guilty of murder and rape.

The case is one of several in India that highlight the ineffectiveness of the traditional criminal law system, especially when it comes to high-profile perpetrators, including the Murder of Jessica Lall and Sanjeev Nanda acquittals.

Priyadarshini was a Kashmiri Pandit.

She was raised in Srinagar.

After Priyadarshini finished school at the Presentation Convent School in Srinagar, she migrated with her family to Jammu due to increasing Militancy in Kashmir.

Priyadarshini received her BCom while in Jammu from MAM College, before being accepted to Delhi University to earn an LLB degree.

It was during her time as a student in Delhi that Santosh Singh became besotted with her, and made indecent proposals.

However, at one point, he started stalking her, and her family lodged several FIRs with the police.

A police escort was provided for some time, but the stalking continued.

Priyadarshini was in the third year of her law program when she was found strangled in her uncle’s residence.

She had been raped, struck 14 times with a motorcycle helmet, and finally strangled with a wire.

Santosh Kumar Singh, her senior in college, had been stalking and harassing her for several years, and was the immediate suspect.

But Santosh came from an influential family - his father J.P. Singh was then Inspector General of Police in Pondicherry - in the course of the trial, he served as Joint Commissioner of Police in Delhi, where the crime had been committed.

In view of these connections, the court handed over the investigation of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

On 17 October 2006, the Delhi High Court found Santosh Kumar Singh guilty on both counts of rape and murder, and on 30 October of the same year sentenced him to death.

On 6 October 2010, the Supreme Court of India commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.