02.26.07

Unasked questions about the Santosh Singh - Priyadarshini Mattoo case

Posted in Current Affairs, Miscellaneous at 10:56 am by PuneTalks

So the Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Santosh Kumar Singh. It wasn’t wholly unexpected and yet it does feel strange. The spirit of Priyadarshini will need few more weeks or may be months to finally rest in peace.
I had not followed the case for a while as so many cases involving deaths of young men and women are in the limelight that I had even thought that it was the SC which had pronounced Singh guilty and ordered his hanging. I even sent an article to my dear Editor of rediff titled “Santosh to be hanged But Many issues remain”. It was only after I had clicked on the “Send” button that I felt that something was amiss,that I needed to check again if Santosh still had a chance to escape the hanging. I went back to the news section of rediff.com only to find that SC had stayed Santosh’s execution.

Oh! The pitfalls of being impatient (though the name is Sudhir which means one with abundance of patience!)
Sorry dear Editor for the mistake though in my assessment, he will eventually be hanged till death for the heinous crime against a young innocent girl. The girl of whom he was besotted that he thought that if she couldn’t be hers then she was better dead! This diabolical young man not only raped her, he finished her life as well.
This happened on 23rd January in the year 1996. And Santosh, ironically the meaning of which is “the contented one”, had been dodging the long arms of the law since then..
If it were not for a small boy called Aditya Raj Kaul, who mobilized the thousands of young men and women to bring justice to the killer Priyadarshini Matoo, the criminal called Santosh would have even been roaming in the corridors of Tees Hazari court scot-free, wearing his lawyer’s cloak.
Santosh nearly escaped to freedom with the blessings of his father, a high-ranking Police Officer. The Additional Sessions Judge actually set him free on 3rd Dec 1999 even as he made the comments that shook the nation. Justice G.P. Thareja said, “ Though I know he is the man who committed the crime, I acquit him giving him the benefit of doubt.” What kind of justice was delivered that day? Or was it injustice that won that day?
I was aghast at this travesty of justice. I read in the newspapers that Santosh’s father was also present when Justice Thareja set the accused free. He folded his hands and bent before the Judge, a repentant father, may be ashamed of the misdeeds of his son and yet too fond of him to send him to the hangman despite being aware of the son’s gruesome act.
If eventually the SC upholds the verdict of Delhi HC and if Santosh is awarded the death penalty, it would bring a just end to a tale laced with grisly crime and its shameful defence. Even then some questions would remain unanswered:
The Additional Sessions Judge said that, “ The CBI in the matter of DNA evidence has not acted fairly. It tampered with the evidence of clothes of the deceased and also the blood sample of the accused. It even fabricated the documentary evidence and also the Malkhana Register of the CBI as is clear from the discrepancies.”
Now is the time to name those CBI officials who perpetuated the miscarriage of justice. Is it not the time to prosecute them and bring them to justice?
What was the role played by Santosh’s father, the IPS officer? I understand that he has retired now from the active service. It must be found out if the father tried to influence the prosecuting officers. May be he spoke to a batch-mate here and a junior there and tried to create loopholes to ensure a verdict in favour of his son. Did his batch-mates cave in their colleague’s pleadings? If yes, then should we not publish names of all those who tried to shield the killer Santosh, by actively destroying evidence? Should these men in Khakhi go unpunished?
What would have happened if some of the selfless, idealistic young people had not taken it upon themselves to form a forum called “Justice For Priyadarshini” and taken the movement to the people. The forum kept the memory of Priyadarshini alive by all means possible at his disposal. It organized protest march, seminars, signature campaigns, and did God knows what other things to keep the the flame of hope burning. The role played by NDTV to keep the memory of the case alive helped put pressure on all the important stakeholders of the society. Many TV channels also joined the fight and the net result was that the entire system became so much heated that CBI had to file appeal challenging the court verdict.
There are many social issues, which too merit attention. I understand that Santosh got married after the lower court acquitted him. What happens to his young wife and the young son who are completely innocent? Will they be allowed to lead the life normally by the society? I don’t know anything about the wife of Santosh but would she easily find employment if she were to scout around for a job. Hope she would not hear the whispers like, “There goes the wife of Santosh, the rapist.”
My thoughts are also on the young son of the convict. Will his friends taunt him by calling him the murderer’s son? Will the young lad be subjected to a life full of humiliation, trauma and shame? The unwanted guilt of being the son of someone who was hanged for raping and killing may be too self-destroying to a tiny ward. Though on second thoughts I feel that in a way it would be good if the death penalty is kept intact by the SC. A life-term would have been a bigger havoc for the family. Imagine the tornado of questions in the mind of a small child who is growing up to understand that his Daddy is jail for a lifetime for a crime as revolting as rape an murder.
Santosh’s father may have tried to save his son by helping him win a judicial victory. But did he not commit a moral outrage by tying the life of a young girl by choosing her to be Santosh’s wife?
And finally would the just end-result of this case be an eye opener for our nation’s conscience? Would it fortify our belief that in the end, evil begets defeat? Or would it have cynics having a field day saying that the justice delivered was more of an exception than the rule.
May the Good God let the soul of Priyadarshini rest in perfect peace.
And may there be no more Santosh Kumar Singhs in our country.
Amen!

Sudhir Bisht is a Consultant and a freelance writer. Reach him at sudhir_bisht@rediffmail.com

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