Father’s fight for justice gets strength

New Delhi: It was Priyadarshini Mattoo’s 34th birthday on Sunday and close to a hundred protesters gathered at Delhi's Jantar Mantar demanding a re-trial and a re-investigation in her murder case.

Motivational guru, Shiv Khera, said, "A person with money and muscles can get away with anything."

Nitish Katara’s mother, Neelam Katara who is also fighting a lonely battle to get justice for the murder of her son said, "It's good that these Children know what they want and are asking for it."

Actors Anupam Kher and Roshan Seth lent their support too.

"The problem is with innumerable women in smaller towns and people who rape them run away scott free. Through this we want to highlight the plight of women all over," Anupam Kher said.

"What is sad is that people have lost faith in the system," Roshan Seth added.

Meanwhile, the fight is no longer a lonely one for Chaman Lal Matoo who has found support and strength to carry on his mission to get justice for his daughter Priyadarshini from complete strangers.

Priyadarshini was raped and murdered by her senior from college, Santosh Singh 12 years ago. Singh is not only a free man and a practicing lawyer.

"How could the judge have said without any evidence that he knew this was the culprit but didn't have evidence to convict him?" one of the supporters, Mrs Malhotra said.

After losing the battle in court for more than a decade ago, Priyadarshini's friends and family have prepared a memorandum and are hopeful of getting justice after having submitted it to the Prime Minister, the President, the Union Law Minister and to Congress President, Sonia Gandhi.

"Kindly intervene in this social cause and help us. Please, we want a retrial and a re-investigation," Priyadarshini Mattoo's friend, Indu Jalali said.

It's a shame that on her 34th birthday, Priyadarshini's 70-year-old father is not only mourning his daughter, but is still waiting for justice after being let down by the country's judicial system.

However, the irony is that Priyadarshini was studying law to become a part of the very system, which let her and her father down.

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