New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday (July 1) set aside an order of the sentence review board (SRB) rejecting a plea of Santosh Kumar Singh for premature release in the 1996 rape and murder case of law student Priyadarshini Mattoo, saying there is an element of reformation in Singh
Justice Sanjeev Narula referred the matter back to the SRB to consider Singh’s plea for premature release afresh.
“I have found some element of reformation in him. The SRB decision is set aside and I have referred back the matter to SRB to consider it afresh,” Justice Narula said.
The court has also framed certain guidelines that has to be followed by SRB while considering the pleas of prisoners seeking premature release release and said that SRB must conduct convicts’ psychological assessment while considering their pleas.
Singh, who is serving life sentence in the case, moved the High Court in 2023 challenging SRB’s recommendation rejecting his premature release in the meeting held on October 21, 2021.
Senior advocate Mohit Mathur, who represented Singh before the court, sought quashing to SRB’s decision, submitting that he already spent 25 years in jail for the crime and his conduct in the jail has been satisfactory and it showed that he has reformed and he would be a useful member of the society.
The court was earlier informed that SRB in a meeting held on September 18, 2024 again rejected Singh’s plea for premature release.
25-year-old law student Mattoo was raped and murdered at her flat in the national capital in 1996. Singh, a law student and son of a former IPS officer, faced trial in the case but he was acquitted by the trial court in December 199 on the ground of lack of evidence.
The High Court, however, overturned the verdict of the trial court and convicted Singh for the offence of rape and murder and awarded him death penalty. Singh challenged the High Court verdict before the Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction in the case but commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.
