Mattoo case got focus again

NEW DELHI: Both the Jessica case and the Nitish Katara case are at a critical stage now.
Interestingly, CBI's appeal in the Mattoo case had languished for over six years, waiting its turn at the bench. But for the public outcry following the acquittals in the Jessica case in February it might have still been gathering dust. The outrage in the Jessica case prompted CBI to request the HC to take up its appeals in the two cases out of turn.The hearing in the Mattoo case began on September 5.
Following the scheme of the trial court's judgment, the high court discussed threadbare 13 different circumstances and decided all of them in favour of CBI. It said, "The trial court quite amazingly after holding almost all the crucial circumstances in favour of the prosecution has ordered unmerited acquittal of the respondent by taking a perverse approach."
While appreciating CBI's evidence against Santosh regarding his motive, the judges felt Santosh didn't care for consequences and pursued his activities (of harassing Mattoo) single-mindedly, that is "either he would have the deceased or make sure she did not enjoy her life. His activities do suggest a strong motive of 'do or die' attitude."
With regard to DNA fingerprinting, the HC disagreed with the trial court's conclusion that the same hadn't been conducted as per the standard scientific methodology. Going out of its way to give the benefit of the doubt to Santosh, the trial court had discredited the procedure of fingerprinting not on the basis of evidence adduced by the defence but on the basis of some literature the judge concerned had apparently come across during his research.
Citing a Supreme Court judgment, the HC held: "The court should not usurp the function of an expert by arriving at is own conclusion contrary to the one given by the expert witness... wherein it has been held by the Supreme Court that findings of an expert witnesses cannot be set aside by a court by making a reference to some literature without confronting the expert with them."