Board to consider early release pleas of Santosh, Manu Sharma next week

NEW DELHI: The sentence review board (SRB) of Delhi government will take a call on the early release of Jessica Lal murder convict

Manu Sharma

, and the rapist and killer of Priyadarshini Mattoo, Santosh Singh, next week.


A senior government official said the convicts would be among around 200 cases to be taken up for discussion for pre-mature release in the SRB meeting on May 24, a day after the result of the Lok Sabha elections are announced.

"The meeting is scheduled at the Delhi secretariat. It is a routine meeting, which takes place every three-four months. It got delayed this time due to the model code of conduct," said the official. "Several cases will come up, including the pleas of Sharma and Singh."

The premature release of a prisoner serving life imprisonment can be considered after he spends at least 14 years in jail without any remission and has good jail conduct records. However, the completion of 14 years does not entitle a prisoner to release and it depends soley on SRB's discretion, the official added.

Siddharth Vashishth, better known as Manu Sharma, was convicted in 2006 and awarded life imprisonment for murdering model Jessica Lal in 1996. He has been lodged in an open jail for almost a year, where he is allowed to leave the prison to work outside and return in the evening.

SRB had last year rejected Sharma's plea for an early release in October following which he had approached Delhi high court. He had referred to the release of Sushil Sharma, convicted in the infamous Tandoor murder case, after staying in prison for 23 years. The court, on January 21, asked SRB to consider Sharma's plea on grounds of good conduct and having completed the mandatory 14-year jail term.

Singh was convicted in the rape and murder of DU student Priyadarshini Mattoo in 1996. A law student of DU, Singh was acquitted by a trial court in 1999 but the Delhi high court reversed the decision in 2006 and awarded him death penalty. In 2010, the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.

The sentence review board comprises the state home minister as it chairman, the prison's director-general, state home and law secretaries, a district judge, the government's chief probationary officer and a joint commissioner rank officer of Delhi Police.