Did We Fail Priyadarshini Mattoo and Make Delhi the Rape Capital?

Cases like Nirbhaya might not have happened had India’s criminal justice system set a precedent for times to come.

(This article was first published on 23 January 2017 and has been reposted from The Quint’s archives to mark Priyadarshini Mattoo’s death anniversary.)

Priyadarshini Mattoo would have been 47 today. She would have perhaps been a top criminal lawyer, rubbing shoulders with the high and the mighty in Lutyens’ Delhi. Perhaps could even be a feminist advocating women rights. She could have, beyond any doubt, been a woman of substance, inching higher academically and professionally to serve the society better.

Our imagination can run far and wide on what potentially the bright Delhi University law faculty student could have been, if only she hadn’t been brutally raped and murdered on 23 January 1996.

This story isn't about a rape and murder victim alone who was forgotten by our snail-paced system. It isn't just about a system which crumbled before the powerful who abuse law.

But it is about the entire criminal justice system of India which failed to set a precedent for all times to come. 

It is about the lackadaisical approach of the Delhi Police and its prosecutors in investigating such a sensitive case, which made future rapists carefree and less law-fearing .

The story is about the society which failed to introspect and take appropriate steps to prevent Delhi from becoming the rape capital.

Criminals Coming from the Agency Protecting People

It has been two decades since that cruel day for the Mattoo family of Srinagar, Kashmir. As if the ethnic cleansing in Kashmir, which led to the exodus of their community of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, wasn't enough, there came a day narrating a nightmare which would change their fate forever.

The day when a man called Santosh Kumar Singh, in a 'fit of rage', raped and brutally murdered their daughter, Priyadarshini, initially with a helmet and later choking her to death with a piece of wire.

The son of the then Inspector General Police (IGP), Jammu and Kashmir, was the rapist and a murderer.

During the course of the investigation, the father of the accused was also made the Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP), New Delhi, where he could have easily interfered and botched the entire case.

It is beyond comprehension how the father of a rapist and a murderer could have been made the boss of an agency which is investigating his son's crimes. Not an ordinary crime of theft or burglary, but a crime against humanity, which shook the conscience of the nation even years later.

While the case was later transferred to the CBI, it was too little too late for speedy justice to be delivered.

A Father’s Lonely Battle

While the father of the spoiled-child-turned-criminal was doing what he could to influence the legal process, there was a father waging a lonely battle shuttling between Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi.

Chaman Lal Mattoo, Priyadarshini's father, would not miss a single court hearing in Delhi and follow up simultaneously with the CBI and their counsel, hoping for a day when the criminal would not just face the gallows, but get the harshest sentence for the society to understand the consequences of such a crime against humanity.

To the horror of friends and family of Priyadarshini, the lower court in Delhi in the year 1999 set Santosh Kumar Singh free over lack of incriminating evidence. 

The agencies had clearly botched up and gone slow under orders and influence.

Justice GP Thareja of the trial court in his 450-page ironic judgement said: Though he knew that “he is the man who committed the crime,” he was forced to acquit him, giving him the “benefit of the doubt”.

Though the judge lambasted the Delhi Police for their role, but it did little to make the agency pay for their sins.

For years, the case file collected dust inside the CBI Headquarters in New Delhi. The agency did not jostle the courage to upset a senior influential cop whose son had stalked Priyadarshini for months under the eyes of the Delhi Police, before committing the horrific crime. Add to that the pace of the routine criminal cases in India's trial or even higher courts.

10 Years and No Nearing the Tunnel’s End

Come 2006, the family had lost all hope after running from pillar to post appealing for justice. Numerous letters addressed to the CBI bosses and even the government of that time did not yield any result for the hapless family.

Mattoo was ageing faster than he should, due to the doors that were slammed on him for almost a decade. There were no firm assurances.

‘It was a sub judice case which would take its sweet time’ was the only response the family received.

The distraught parents of Priyadarshini, however, did not lack the commitment to keep pursuing it in whatever way they could, silently expecting a miracle. It was, however, a dark tunnel without any sign of light towards its end.

Petitions, RTIs and Re-Trials

I was 16 in March 2006 when I heard Mattoo tear up, sitting as a fossil inside a TV studi,o asking for the wheels of justice to move. As a student of 12th standard in school, the father's agony and appeal for justice moved me beyond any comprehension.

The sight of a father left alone by the system and the society shattered my belief that there was fair justice.

While I wrote my board exams, I began an online petition addressed to the Chief Justice of India asking for a re-trial, collecting signatures which led to several like-minded people coming together and starting a campaign for justice. There were RTIs filed, letters written, candlelight marches organised, which culminated in a massive protest across India and especially in New Delhi on 23 July 2006 – Priyadarshini's birth anniversary.

While media took note and highlighted the public anger on the streets, the Delhi High Court took a suo motto cognisance, putting the case on a fast track trial.

More than a decade after the crime was committed, criminal Santosh Kumar Singh, son of a top cop, was pronounced guilty by the Delhi High Court. 

The guilty was punished finally as the double bench asked him to be hanged till death on 30 October 2006. The judgment was hailed. Even showcased as a major achievement by the CBI, which had sat on its file for years.

Later in October 2010, the Supreme Court reduced the death sentence to a life term. All this while the aged father of Priyadarshini continued to shuttle between Delhi, Jammu and Srinagar, amidst threats from the family of the criminal – all alone, waging a battle against the entire system which had failed a father – as the nation watched silently. For the first time, I met Mattoo in a South Delhi guest house along with my friend Rhythma Kaul on 5 May 2006.

In March that year, Anasuya Roy from NDTV and Arunoday Mukharji from CNN-IBN had interviewed me and featured the injustice in the case prominently, which led to the entire nation standing together asking the system to wake up to reality and deliver speedy justice.

‘Justice Delayed is Justice Denied’

The axiom 'Justice delayed is justice denied' fits appropriately to this case. Although years later justice was delivered, did it really set a precedent as was being talked about?

A few years after the verdict, the conscience of the nation shook again with the barbaric Nirbhaya rape and murder case.

Or did it?

I could see another Priyadarshini Mattoo case being highlighted in the media, outrage being shown on the streets and the system promising to reform for good.

Down on ground today, sadly, India has not changed. We hear about brutal rape cases every single day and crimes against women.

The recent Bengaluru incident during the New Year's Eve only highlights this sickness of the mind which we have failed to counter. The media highlights the brutal cases in cities and as we move further towards the villages, the reportage decreases.

The national media seems to be only for the metropolitan cities and has chained itself into a stagnation, resulting in a status quo. Sexual harassment is so common that we hardly bother to even care.

The mindset in the society has frozen into such insensitivity over the years that we refuse to change for good. The cases against Godman Asaram and the infamous editor of Tehelka, Tarun Tejpal are just few where they were accused of rape, yet it's easy to take the criminal justice system for a ride causing delay in justice delivery.

When will we remove blinkers from this reality?

Mattoo’s Justice Could Have Prevented Further Crimes

The most brutal rape case in the recent history of Nirbhaya may not have happened if our law enforcement agencies, advocates, judges and even the media would have taken the right steps to prevent the failure of justice to the family of Priyadarshini Mattoo.

For me, personally, the Priyadarshini Mattoo case changed my life forever.

As many call it, it wasn't just my claim to fame, but it was something which taught me life the hard way. It made me see the society, the system and above all the criminal justice delivery system up close.

Sitting at their home in Jammu one day, Mattoo uncle and aunty did not let me leave, thanking me for whatever little I did.

It was a heartbreaking moment to see the lonely parents leading a life in oblivion, recounting the precious 25 years they had spent with their daughter, Priyadarshini. 

On my way back, I broke down to tears, completely helpless in comforting Mattoo uncle and aunty with mere words. How can you comfort aged parents who have lost their daughter in such a horrific manner?

The daughter who wanted to be a lawyer, and now her parents were left to spend all their life visiting courts in New Delhi from Jammu and Kashmir. 

Till his last day, Mattoo uncle was pained by the Supreme Court verdict, which reduced the death sentence to life term for Santosh Kumar Singh. He wanted the CBI to file a review petition in Supreme Court, which never happened.

Why Mattoo’s Case Hit Home

I wish there was a last opportunity to meet this remarkable father, who crossed all hurdles in the system, braved all threats and fought the entire criminal mindset and the red-tapism for his daughter and for justice.

What would I have told him, one last time before he passed away in October 2016?

I have been wondering for all of this decade on why I chose to begin a campaign for Priyadarshini Mattoo. I wasn't her relative nor was I an activist.

The answer to this question took a decade, yet it was very close to my heart in a fossil state. In early 2003 when I was 14, my sister, Sunita Koul Ganjoo, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Gurgaon's Palam Vihar.

The family, friends and even neighbours had always within felt that there was a foul play. There was also a red scar noticed on her body.

Yet there wasn’t a police complaint, which obviously meant no investigation. 

The family was consumed by the shock and concentrated on bidding peaceful farewell to the brightest and the most adorable daughter, amidst the last rites and the following rituals. The memory of this incident, which had shattered the family, stayed inside a corner of my heart. I felt pained and responsible somewhere for injustice, yet completely helpless as a minor would at that age.

I knew my sister did not die a natural death. I knew I could not do anything about it. Yet I knew that I could do something to bring in a change.

How to Comfort Those Facing Injustice?

I wanted to tell Mattoo uncle that his battle shouldn't have been lonely in a country which claims to worship reincarnations of Goddesses. I wanted to comfort him by saying that there were people across India who cared about this injustice, despite the fact that the father, who wanted justice for his daughter, was pushed to a corner by all of us.

I wanted to console a brave father one last time, who would have been longing to see his daughter alive again. I wanted to tell him that for every sister in this country, there is a brother somewhere.

(Aditya Raj Kaul is a television journalist. He can be reached at [e-mail]. The views expressed above are the author’s own and The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)