[Reader-list] Priyadarshini's father demands justice for Shopian victims

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

*Priyadarshini's father demands justice for Shopian victims*

Excelsior Correspondent


Link - http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/09july01/state.htm#14

*SRINAGAR, June 30: *C L Mattoo, father of Priyadarshini Mattoo who was
raped and murdered more than 13 years ago by her Law College senior in
Delhi, today joined the chorus demanding justice for the two rape and murder
victims of Shopian district and called for a probe into the incident by an
agency at par with the CBI.

"The local investigating agencies are not trained in investigating such
cases where the probe has already been botched up. I think an agency
parallel to CBI or the central Agency itself should be entrusted with the
probe of the Shopian incident," Mattoo, who is in the summer capital of the
State, told EXCELSIOR.

Mattoo, a Kashmiri Pandit who migrated to Jammu in 1990, said justice had to
be done with the victims of the "Shopian tragedy" as it was heinous crime
for which the guilty need to be punished.

Mattoo's daughter, Priyadarshini, was found raped and murdered at her house
in New Delhi on January 23, 1996. On October 17, 2006, the Delhi High Court
found Santosh Kumar Singh guilty on both counts of rape and murder and on
October 30 of the same year sentenced him to death.

Santosh Kumar Singh, the son of an IPS officer, had earlier been acquitted
by a trial court in 1999, and the High Court decision was widely perceived
in India as a landmark reversal and a measure of the force of media pressure
in a democratic setup.

Mattoo said the incident highlighted anarchy in the society that despite
passage of one month since the tragedy struck on May 30 no apparent headway
has been made in the case.

Mattoo said religion should not be a considering factor as "the crime was
committed against humanity. The victims were just like our sisters and
daughters. Such cases should be stamped out from our society and the entire
civilised world."

He said people from all walks of life across not only India but from entire
world should get together in working towards getting justice to the Shopian
victims and such victims at other places in the world.

He said he would seek support from non-Governmental organisations, who work
for such causes, in and outside country to achieve this goal.