HC questions SRB approach in Priyadarshini Mattoo  case convict’s premature release plea

The Delhi High Court on Thursday said the Sentence Review Board (SRB) appears to be driven by “public perception” when deciding on the premature release of convicts while hearing a plea by Santosh Kumar Singh, the life convict in the 1996 Priyadarshini Mattoo rape and murder case.

Mattoo, 25, was raped and murdered in January 1996. Singh, a law student at Delhi University, was acquitted by the trial court on December 3, 1999, but the Delhi High Court reversed the decision on October 27, 2006, and awarded him the death penalty.