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The Supreme Court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence awarded to Santosh Kumar Singh, the convict in the Priyadarshini Mattoo rape-cum-murder case, to life imprisonment. An apex court Bench of Justices H S Bedi and C K Prasad pronounced the verdict, while upholding the conviction of accused in the case. The apex court Bench had earlier on July 29 reserved its verdict on Santosh Kumar Singh's appeal challenging the verdict of the Delhi High Court convicting and awarding the death sentence to him for the rape of Priyadarshini over 14 years ago. According to the prosecution, Singh had raped and murdered Priyadarshini Mattoo, a third year Delhi University law student, who was also his junior in the college at her residence in South Delhi 's Vasant Kunj in January 1996. The Delhi High Court had on October 27, 2006 reversed the trial court order holding Santosh Singh guilty of raping and killing Priyadarshini. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was seeking death sentence for Santosh Singh, had argued that the presence of parts of Santosh's helmet and the DNA test conclusively proved his guilt - a charge, which was denied by Santosh Singh's lawyer.

Priyadarshini Mattoo case: Supreme Court commutes death sentence to life imprisonment