Model Jessica Lal, Priyadarshini Mattoo’s murderers could be released soon
New Delhi : Santosh Singh, convicted in the 1996 rape and murder of Delhi University student, Priyadarshini Mattoo, is the latest name added to the list of prisoners who are being considered for an early release, a government official familiar with the development said.
The Sentence Review Board (SRB) will meet on Thursday and decide the fate of more than a hundred prisoners, including Santosh Singh, Manu Sharma and Sushil Sharma. The names of the latter two were presented to the SRB in its last meeting on June 24, when the board deferred a decision for the next hearing.
Santosh Singh has been in prison since 2006, since he was sentenced to death by the Delhi high court. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court in 2010.
Manu Sharma was convicted in 2006 for the murder of model Jessica Lall and given a life sentence. Sushil Sharma was convicted in 2006 in the Naina Sahni tandoor murder and also sentence to life imprisonment.
Last week, Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain’s office called the offices of the other six board members and informed them about the October 4 meeting.
The SRB, comprising Jain, director general (prisons) Ajay Kashyap, home secretary Manoj Parida, a Delhi police officer of the rank of joint commissioner, a district judge, law secretary Anoop K Mendirata, and a government-appointed probation officer, will meet and discuss if the prisoners should be released.
A prison officer said Santosh’s name has been included for the first time. A practising lawyer at the time of his arrest in 2006, he has a clean record in prison.
In 1996, Santosh Singh, son of IPS officer JP Singh, who was a joint commissioner in the Delhi police, was arrested for the rape and murder of third-year law student Priyadarshini Mattoo.
The 23-year-old was found dead at her house in Vasant Vihar in January 1996. The police said Singh stalked Mattoo for over two years. The two were fellow students at Delhi University.
In 1999, a city court acquitted Singh of the charges, highlighting inaction by Delhi Police. The verdict triggered protests across the country. India’s then president, KR Narayan, said that the “cathedrals of justice have become like casinos”. The police appealed the sentence in Delhi high court, which convicted him in 2006.
Confirming Singh’s inclusion in the list, a jail officer said, “As per the prison rules, we are duty-bound to include his name and send it to the SRB. His prison record in clean. He has not flouted any rule in the last 14 years.”
With most board members giving positive reviews about the prison conducts of Manu Sharma and Sushil Sharma, the board deferred the cases of the two men during the July 24 meeting. The two have also been transferred to the ‘open’ and ‘semi-open’ jail.
“It will be interesting what the board decides. Whatever they decide will be approved or denied by Delhi’s lieutenant governor. Interestingly, the Delhi HC, while hearing a PIL recently, reminded the state government about release rules. No prisoner can be kept in jail beyond 20 years. With remission, Sushil Sharma has completed 28 years, while Manu Sharma has done 20 years,” said a home department official who asked not to be named.
courtesy : hindustantimes.com
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
