Priyadarshini Mattoo case: Delhi HC to decide convict's plea for premature release on Jul 1

New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) The Delhi High Court would on Tuesday decide the plea of premature release filed by Santosh Kumar Singh, who is serving life term for the 1996 rape and murder of law student Priyadarshini Mattoo.

Justice Sanjeev Narula had reserved the order on Singh's plea on May 14.

Singh, in his 2023 petition, sought quashing of the recommendation of the Sentence Review Board (SRB) of Delhi prisons rejecting his premature release in the meeting held on October 21, 2021.

Senior advocate Mohit Mathur, representing Singh, had previously argued that his client was sentenced to life term and had already undergone 25 years of incarceration including remission.

His client's conduct, Mathur said, was satisfactory indicating reformation and the fact that he lost every potential to commit a crime in future.

He would be a useful member of the society and for the last several years, he has been in open jail as well, the counsel submitted.

It had come to court's notice that another SRB meeting was held on September 18, 2024 and his case was again rejected for pre mature release.

Mattoo, 25, was raped and murdered in January 1996. Singh, a law student of Delhi University, was acquitted by the trial court in the case on December 3, 1999, but the Delhi High Court on October 27, 2006 overruled the decision, holding him guilty of rape and murder and awarded him death penalty.

Singh, the son of a former IPS officer, challenged the punishment.

In October 2010, the Supreme Court upheld Singh's conviction but commuted his capital punishment to life imprisonment. PTI SKV SKV AMK AMK