HC reserves verdict in Mattoo murder case

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict in the Priyadarshni Mattoo case after pulling up the city police for failing to protect her life.

Concluding the arguments on the appeal filed by the CBI against the acquittal of Santosh Kumar Singh, a Bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin said if police had taken action on time, "the girl (Mattoo) would have been alive".

"What kind of police force we have in the town (Delhi) where no one is safe," the Bench observed and added that since the police did not take any action on the complaint of the victim, the accused was encouraged.

The Court's observation to this effect came when Additional Solicitor General Amrendra Sharan said Mattoo was continuously harassed for two years by Singh and a complaint in this regard was lodged with Vasant Kunj police station.

"The girl (Mattoo) had gone on and on bearing this onslaught," the Bench said while expressing its anguish on how public suffers when it approaches police with its problems like one faced by Mattoo.

The Bench said the law abiding citizen like Mattoo seeks police assistance but if the cops will not respond to their complaints, people face consequence like this (Mattoo's fate).

"This is the fate of common people," the Bench said, adding that "the girl died because of the police and not because of the boy (accused)".

"Why can't you (Delhi Police) be held responsible for what all happened with Mattoo," the Court said.

The Mattoo rape-cum-murder case was investigated for the first three days by the Delhi Police before it was handed over to the CBI.