"Churi kuttan te o khaaunda naahi;
Main ohnu dil da maas khawaya..

Ohne ik udaari aisi maari;
Ki oh mud vatni naa aaya!!

.. Maayi ni .. main ek shikra yaar banaya!!"

(When I give him bread, he doesnt doesnt eat it;
I fed him my Heart's meat!

He took such a flight off this land...
that he never returned hom..

Oh Mother, I made a very hard-hearted friend!)

{poet: Shiv Kumar Batalvi}

Rahul: Just read the story of Priyadarshini from the link you provided. Wonder when and how can we shoot the politicians in our land and live amongst humans again???

It could have been anyone.. Priyadarshini's beauty didnt make her special.. her death makes us really a treacherous lot though!!

Desh
Drishtikone.com

dear Rahul

this story made me cry, can't write more now, will come back.

love, heath

Can we do ANYTHING to make politicians and their goons accountable for all their actions ?

I signed the online petition but that hardly seems to be the tool which will help in bringing justice or closure for Priyadarshini.

-Namita

Dear Rahul, it just isn't right; that Priyadarshani rapist/killer, is now a praciticing lawyer? This is truly disturbing; and how can her family and friends have resolve over her senseless slaughter; when her killer.... free's other killers?

My sympathy, to all those who's lives miss this majestic singing angel-->Priyadarshani
... a young, innocent life; snuffed out, too soon.

Hi Rahul
nice post. Why is her killer free & that too practicing as a lawyer?please explain

Guilty until proven innocent
Justice is LOST
File an APPEAL!

Rahul, thank you for sharing this tragic story with us. I did sign the petition. Do you think there is hope for justice ?? Do you think Santosh Kumar will be indicted, punished??

Rahul, do you not believe in heaven and hell?? Do you not believe in Karma?? The way I see it even if Santosh Kumar with the help of his father, escapes just punishment on Earth, he has to pay back karmically. He has to suffer the consequences of the heinous crime.

God bless you Rahul.

Dear All,
I have been following this case closely for past many years. If all of us have suffered so much on hearing about what happened to Priyadarshini, the agony her family and friends go through everyday must be excruciating.
Living in India today,I believe the one and only thing that will make a difference in getting justice will be sensible media. We have recently seen the power media had in saving the life of a 4 year old child who fell in a 60 feet deep pit. Please all of you out there in print and TV, keep up the good work...let Priyadarshini appear as "breaking news" every now and then. And all of us who can spearhead word of mouth and ink and pen informatin campaign, lets do it. All of you who have not signed the onlie petition, please do so-
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mattoo/
It may not help immediatley but such results are far reaching.

We can do it.

How can a persons family and society accept him after he commits such an atrocious crime.

This is a shame on us and our judicial system that priyadarshni's rapist and murderer is not brought to justice.

My heart bleeds for her father who is clinging to the threads of his life just to get justice.

I had always thought that cases like priyadarshni and jessica lal only happened in movies, but the stark facts and truth has shocked me. Suddenly the civilization seems and lost and society looks barbaric.

Is this it....i mean it is still not sinking in that if you have money and power you can rape and kill anyone. What happened to the good old democracy and law and justice and truth and honesty and humanity.

Amit

A visit to any court in India, with darkness trapped in its crubling edifice; rickety, pan chewing lawyers; cycles and scooters blocking the entrance, water puddles on floors; dirty rooms after rooms after rooms in directionless corridors; dark, moldy magistrate chambers and obtuse, illiterate, crotch-scratching hawaldars - is enough to make you come back certain that an uplifting concept like Justice can not come out of such decay.

For all our big talk about heritage and civilisation and history and culture and bunkum, this is what we are. A girl is mugged and raped and the judicial apparatus goes and whores itself to the moneyed and nothing happens, this is what we are.

Shame.

North,

Priyadarshini was a third-year law student at Delhi University, when she was found strangled in her uncle’s Vasant Kunj residence. She had been raped, injured 14 times and then strangled with a wire.

Priyadarshani's killer Santosh Kumar Singh, her senior in college, had been stalking and harassing her for several years, Santosh came from an influential family - his father J.P. Singh, was then Inspector General of Police in the Indian state of Pondicherry - in the course of the trial he served as Joint Commissioner of Police in Delhi, where the crime had been committed.

Read this what the Judge had to say while delivering the judgement:

The Additional Sessions Judge. J.P. Thareja said of Santosh, "Though I know he is the man who committed the crime, I acquit him, giving him the benefit of the doubt."

Aaron Tikkoo

This makes this story all the sadder Aaron.... to know, that her killer was identified by the courts; but, freed because of influences(money, power).... How can her Spirit rest in peace, when her murder goes unresolved?

Considering the judge's quote; could this not be used via a higher supreme court there; to overturn this verdict?

I am totally shocked at this betrayal of justice!!

North

Dear Rahul,
In India, people don't get justice. Period. Everything's up for sale, including the law. It's a shame but there is a ray of hope for the future as more and more people are coming out to voice their protests. Anupam Kher and Ashok Pandit were some of the people, who have a connection with Kashmir, who came out in support of getting justice for Priyadarshini recently.

I hope the culprits behind Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini murders are brought to justice soon.

Cheers!
Navin

In India, the criminal justice system has become a whore, a veritable mistress to the politicians, the influential and the wealthy. The trite phrase “miscarriage of justice” has been used so often that it’s become a cliché. In 1999, we had Jessica Lal murdered in the heart of the capital city. Hundreds of people saw her being done to death because she refused a drink to a politician’s son and his scumbag cronies. Verdict delivered in 2006: Not Guilty for want of evidence!! Witnesses turned “hostile” because the murderer is the progeny of a government minister in the north Indian state of Haryana.
Thanks to a very lively and bold media of India, the trial in the Jessica Lal murder case has been reordered.
The murders of Jessica Lal and Priyadarshni are small beer compared to the genocide of the Sikhs in New Delhi in the wake of assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. 2701 sikh men, women and children were butchered on the streets of Delhi in 2 days. 22 years later, we are yet to see a single prosecution. Around a dozen commissions of inquiry (appointing a commission of inquiry is the standard Indian government response to a public outcry) have been appointed. Tomes of texts—eye witness accounts, affidavits, et al—gather dust in dingy government offices Politicians, who should have been lynched publicly, occupy plum posts in government. Lack of “incontrovertible evidence establishing their guilt beyond any doubt” works every time in the criminal’s favour. Do you think that the spoilt brat who commits crime in broad daylight without an iota of fear of being made accountable because the law is his Dad’s concubine wouldn’t have sufficient clout to destroy whatever little evidence is available to nail him??
The Indian authorities have a penchant for going in for soft targets. I am still amused when I remember the occasion the Delhi police arrested the CEO of an e-commerce website, Baazi.com, because somebody hosted a nude school boy-girl video on that site! Actor Salman Khan is hauled over the coals for killing an endangered species of deer. The life of a deer, it seems, is more valuable than the life of an innocent girl in India!
The only hope for India is the triumvirate of its judiciary, media and the apolitical and extremely efficient armed forces. The civil authorities in India aren’t even competent enough to pull a boy out of a 60-feet deep pit. I wonder if the life of the little boy, Prince, would’ve been saved if it hadn’t been for the activism of the media and the efficiency of the Indian Army.
The rapists of a German tourist in Jodhpur(state of Rajasthan) were brought to justice in less than a month by a fast track court. Definitely, if there’s a will, there’s a way. We need to replicate such speedy justice in the cases of Priyadarshani and Jessical Lal as well. Together we can and we will.

dear Rahul

this heartfelt essay revives a story that many have forgotten (and here in the west, many never even knew of).

you have brought an honest understanding of the horror of Priyadarshini's murder into my heart. not in the typical way, by describing the murder, or the details of the police and justice system corruption, but instead by bringing life to the person who was slain. the emotions that your essay awakened in me have taken me a day to assimilate, to be able to get a point where i could reread the essay without weeping.

the warmth and dignity of your own sympathetic nature brings the color back to Priyadarshini's face, makes us know her as if she were alive, and shows us how vicious was the destruction of the possibilities and future that were lost when her life was ended.

i know my comment's focus should be about how horrible Priyadarshini's murder was, how incredibly awful the police and courts were when they acted on this case, and so on.

but instead, after a day taken to feel with and for, and weep over, Priyadarshini, i am now happy that you exist to write such essays.

when you write about people, you lift your subjects up -- into our lives, at eye-level with us. your sympathy supports your subjects, and protects and defends them against our possible cynicism and coldness. by your example, and with your beautiful words, you awaken our sympathies for your subjects. if we should read one of your essays on a day when we are in an inhumane mood, our coldness gets torn to shreds by the strong breeze of your empathy, and inhumanity is chased away.

to bring life to someone who is no longer here, to show us by example how to think seriously and with love and warmth about others, and to show us your courage in facing all the dirtiest corners of life -- by these means you show us how to live. it is a feat that is rare in writing, and you manage it every time.

without a strong sense of how things should be, we cannot do the work needed to make things better with purpose and focus. your writing gives us that strong sense of how things should be. the world needs writers like you, as has been said by others in the past. your essays are a gift to the world, in this respect.

thanks for sharing this story. it brings Priyadarshini back to life for a little while. i'm sure she's smiling with love, when you feel that pinch on your shoulder.

love, heath

This story makes me feel sad, angry, and speechless . . . Priyadarshini was a very promising woman and now her family has to live with her loss for the rest of their lives. The Indian justice system must also live with such a shameful verdict reached in their courts. No wonder a movie like "rang de basanti" touched a nerve. It was a statement on the system; something so drastic needs to be done for the system to wake up and really follow the "lessons of indianess" which are preached all the time.

Cliched but true nonetheless - daughters of Bharata Mata are waiting for justice.

Yahaan Eik Khiloona Hai Insaan Ki Hasti,
Yeh Basti Hai Murda Parastoon Ki Basti,
Yahaan Tu Jeevan Sey Hai Maut Sasti,...........

Jala Du Isey,Phoonk Daloo Yeh Duniya.
Meray Saamney Sey Hata Loo Yeh Duniya,
Tumhari Hai Tum Hi Sanmbhaloo Yeh Duniya, ........

Bahut Khub Likha hai Duraniji! Hur Philosopher ka ye kehna hai Is Andakar mein jho Insaniyat basti hai aur chalthi hai.

Sirif Andhen log hee keh sakthe hai, ke Duniya puree haseen hai. Jithni achaye uthini hee buraye.

Misery ka Bandaar
Nyai ka namu nishan nahi
Paisa hee Bhagwan
Main Sach tu Galath
Yehi hai duniya ki Halath!

Vho tho bilkul mera khayal tha Durani....
Tumhari hee ye Duniya tumhee sambalo!

I would just add adjectives to it...
Tumhari hee ye Lathkor Sadee Duniya tumhee sambalo

Having said all this, Amongst this Big Kachra, I do know pockets of Beauty and Harmony! Vahi tho Manzil hai zindagi ki!

Rahul, Justice has finally been served!!
>You are no more than a faded picture in this >mortal world.
My heart felt thanks to people like you who kept her story alive and not let it fade.

Hope this case sends out a clear message to the other Santosh Singh's ("the so called privileged lot, who abuse the system" )that they can't get away with bloody murder.

May Priyadarshini's soul rest in peace. I hope her parents and loved once get some closure now.

Regards,
Karthika