A special Barabanki court on Monday sentenced 12 accused to life imprisonment in the 18 -year -old Dalit oppression, violence and murder case. The court has also imposed a fine of ₹ 1.18 lakh on all the culprits. At the same time, five people of the plaintiff side have also been sentenced to three years imprisonment and a fine of ₹ 10,000.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday quashed the decision of the review board for dismissing the premature release of Santosh Kumar Singh, who was serving a life sentence in 1996 with Priyadarshini Mattoo, a law student Priyadarshini Mattoo.
Justice Sanjeev Narula said that there is scope for improvement in Leo. He again sent the case to the punishment review board (SRB) and asked him to re -consider the premature release of the convict.
Justice Narula gave the verdict, saying, “I have seen the scope of improvement in it. The SRB’s decision is canceled and I have sent the SRB back to consider the case afresh. ”
The court has also given some guidelines to be followed by the SRB while considering the petitions of the prisoners.
He said that SRB should evaluate the convicts while considering the pleas of the culprits, which was not done in this case. A detailed decision in the case is awaited.
Singh, in his petition in 2023, has demanded the cancellation of SRB’s recommendation to reject his premature release in a meeting held on October 21, 2021.
Senior advocate Mohit Mathur, appearing for Singh, said that the convict has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the crime of murder and has already been sentenced to 25 years.
He also said that the guilty behavior has been satisfactory, which shows that he has improved and all his possibilities of committing crime have ended.
The lawyer said that he will be a useful member of the society and has also been in an open jail for the last several years.
The court was earlier told that on September 18, 2024, there was another meeting of SRB and his premature release petition was rejected.
Mattoo (25) was raped and murdered in January 1996. Singh, a student of Delhi University law, was acquitted by the lower court on 3 December 1999, but the Delhi High Court on 27 October 2006 overturned the verdict and convicted him of rape and murder and sentenced him to death.
Singh, son of the former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, challenged his conviction and death sentence.
The Supreme Court upheld Singh’s conviction in October 2010 but changed the death sentence into life imprisonment.
