Priya was 'full of life'

New Delhi: On the morning of January 23, 1996 Priyadarshini Mattoo and her parents had been planning about the entire day ahead. By evening everything changed.

Talking to Gulf News, Priyadarshini's father Chaman Lal Mattoo recalled, "Priya was driving her Maruti towards the Delhi University from where she was doing law. On way, she was to drop us at the Tis Hazari Courts, as my wife, Rageshwari and I were to attend some personal court case."

The mention of his daughter throws open a flood of emotions and memories. "Full of life and laughter, Priya kept chattering all the way. We spoke to her on the phone towards the evening after she was back at our Vasant Kunj residence in south Delhi. She detailed us about the lunch she had and how she was resting with her pet dog Snoopy by her side," he said.

Mattoo, who worked with a Delhi-based NGO, Sulabh International as chairman after his retirement from Jammu & Kashmir government as chief engineer, Public Works Department, returned in the evening to find a huge crowd of residents and policemen gathered in front of his house. As he looked around quizzically, a neighbour broke the news.

Wounds still fresh

"Priya has been murdered - the words still keep echoing in my mind," said the father. The quiver in his voice reflected that the wounds were still fresh even after a decade. Mattoo had fainted on hearing the news. "On regaining consciousness, I looked for my wife. She had returned half-an-hour ago from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences after a brief routine check-up. She had become unconscious on hearing about Priya."

"I stumbled and struggled to reach her. It took a long time for the news of the traumatic and tragic death of our bubbly and beautiful daughter to sink in," said the distraught father.

The gruesome incident stunned the nation. Priyadarshini was raped, strangled with an electric wire and finally her face battered beyond recognition with a helmet by Santosh Singh, a law student at the Law Centre of Delhi University. A year senior to Priyadarshini, he had been stalking her for two years.

"I have always had implicit faith in God, but this tragedy shook me. Rageshwari stood rock solid behind the family and always asked me to have trust in Him. Neighbours and strangers all stood by us and offered immense support," Mattoo struggled to speak.

Harassed

Remembering the life and times spent with his daughter, he divulged, "For two years Santosh harassed our daughter. Earlier, when she travelled by bus to and from college he would follow her on his motorbike. He would come home and bang our door and ask Priya to open it. Both my wife and I had reprimanded him several times. Despite having lodged police complaints against him, we were bothered about our daughter's safety."

The Delhi Police provided Priyadarshini with a security guard and the concerned parents bought her a car so that she would feel safe while travelling. "But Santosh kept following her and imagine even had the temerity to confiscate her car keys once, while she was waiting at a traffic intersection," he stated.

Emotional reasons

Memories haunt him. Books, music cassettes, photographs are signs that Priya has left for her parents, who within a week of their daughter's death moved to Jammu & Kashmir. For emotional reasons, they even disposed off the vehicle they had gifted her. Mattoo says, "I sometimes spend time in Priya's room to feel her presence. But her mother has not been able to enter her room again."

After initial investigations by the Delhi Police, two days later, the Priyadarshini murder case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Mattoo said, "By then the Delhi Police officers had successfully sabotaged all clues pertaining to the crime scene and botched up the relevant evidence at the behest of Santosh's father J.P. Singh, then Joint Commissioner, Delhi Police."

The case dragged for 11 years. On October 30, 2006, the High Court ordered for Priyardarshini's killer Santosh Singh to be "hanged till death". Reacting to it Mattoo says, "No mercy should be shown to the culprit for committing such a heinous crime."

He feels vindicated. "The tables have now turned on the Delhi Police. I hear that the CBI has moved an application before the High Court specifying the names of the guilty officers of the Delhi Police."

Recalling the time when on December 3, 1999, the trial court acquitted Priyadarshini's killer, Mattoo said, "Even though the judge raised an accusing finger at Santosh, yet exonerated him, we still did not lose faith in the judiciary. But one thing amazed me, as I believe it did several others present in the court from time to time, that there was never an iota of remorse on the face of both the father and the son," he remarked.

"But then it does not matter," he says. The elderly couple tries to find solace by reading scriptures and as Mattoo puts it, "listening to music that is soothing to our souls."