Delhi HC seeks convict’s education details

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Thursday asked Santosh Kumar Singh, who is serving life term for rape and murder of  law student Priyadarshini Mattoo to file complete details of his education.

The court noted that Singh has been pursuing the two-year LLM programme since 2012 and asked how long would he take to complete the course.

Justice Mukta Gupta said: “File a detailed affidavit explaining the studies he has done in his life and in which year. For how long his education will continue? Let us be clear about his education.”

Making it clear that it was not stopping him from studying, the court listed the matter for hearing on May 21. The court was hearing Singh’s plea seeking parole to write the LLM exams, scheduled to start from May 22. The court observed: “For how long will your LLM go on? When this incident had happened, he had already completed LLB and was also pursuing some course in law at that time.”

The convict’s lawyer  said Singh was doing LLM in two branches and has completed the course in one of them and pursuing it in the other. He also said that a person cannot be stopped from pursuing his studies.

Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra opposed the parole plea, saying Singh was seeking parole to write the LLM exam and also attend the wedding of his brother-in-law in Bihar.

Earlier, Singh had sought parole on the same grounds. How many times his brother-in-law will get married, the lawyer said, adding it has become a trend among prisoners to enroll in courses to get out on parole. He said LLM was a two-year course and he cannot be permitted to avail parole repeatedly to pursue it.

The court had sought response of the state on Singh’s plea seeking the relief. Twenty-five-year-old Mattoo  was raped and murdered in January 1996. Singh, a law student in DU, was acquitted by trial court in the case on December 3, 1999, but the HC reversed the decision.