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Will Mattoo case see a fresh appeal?
Published on Wed, Mar 22, 2006 at 20:10 in India section
Tags: Jessica Lal, Murder , New Delhi
New Delhi: With the Delhi Police owning up to the possibility that evidence in the Jessica Lall murder case was tampered with, there is hope for another case.
An equally severe indictment of the investigators had come some years back in the Priyadarshini Mattoo case.
Now, it seems that even in this case, there may be a fresh appeal. Excerpt from judgement by Additional Sessions Judge, G P Thareja: "Though I know he is the man who committed the crime, I acquit him, giving him the benefit of the doubt."
This is what Judge Thareja said while acquitting Santosh Singh of the charges of raping and murdering his junior from the Law Faculty, Priyadarshini Mattoo.
The crime was the culmination of a long-drawn saga of harassment and stalking.
Priyadarshini had, in fact, lodged two complaints against Santosh and had even been provided a Personal Security Officer to protect her from him.
But much like the Jessica Lall case, this trial also fell apart because of forensic evidence, or the lack of it.
Though the judge severely indicted the CBI for fabricating DNA evidence, there was little the CBI has done to book its own officers.
The Judge has observed that the investigating agency was actually working to protect the interests of the accused.
There is more that links both the cases. Both the young men accused come from influential families - Santosh Singh's father was a senior IPS officer and Manu Sharma's father is a minister.
Both had access to the best legal brains - in this case Pandit R K Naseem was the defence counsel.
And in both cases, it was the mishandling of scientific evidence that led to the acquittals.
The scales of justice have yet to balance out in several other cases such as the Priyadarshani Mattoo murder.
CBI Director, Vijay Shankar, says, "Priyadarshini's case should also be retried and reinvestigated so that the person who killed her is brought to book."
If police officers were found to be colluding with the accused in the Jessica case, then in Priyadarshani's murder, it was none other than the CBI, that failed to prepare a water-tight prosecution.
Now, as the civil society sheds its apathy maybe, Priyadarshani, Jessica and many other young women like them will at last be able to rest in peace.
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