3 min readNew DelhiFeb 4, 2026 06:23 AM IST
Turning toThe Metamorphosisby Franz Kafka, the Delhi High Court has ordered early release of Harpreet Singh, a former member of the President’s Bodyguard who was sentenced to life imprisonment, along with colleague Satender Singh, for the gangrape of a college student at the Buddha Jayanti Park in the Capital in 2003.
Describing the Sentence Review Board’s decision-making process as “fundamentally flawed”, Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, in her order on January 30, observed that the convict, Harpreet Singh, “has been trapped by the State in the frozen image of his past criminality”.
The bench said the SRB’s decision to not grant Harpreet early release in 2024 and its subsequent approval by the Lieutenant Governor were “arbitrary, irrational, and contrary to the record”.
Harpreet, represented by advocate Sumer Boparai, had submitted that he is a reformed individual, who has been placed on the commendation roll, awarded certificates of recognition on at least three occasions, participated in various activities, and worked in a diligent and disciplined manner while in prison.
Turning to Kafka, Justice Krishna said, “Much like Gregor Samsa, the Petitioner, has been trapped by the State in the frozen image of his past criminality – viewed perpetually as the gigantic insect of 2003, rather than the reformed individual of 2025. The SRB, by mechanically reiterating the heinousness of the original offence, as a constant and permanent bar to release, has refused to acknowledge that the Petitioner has successfully undergone a reverse metamorphosis: shedding the propensity for crime and earning his place back in humanity, through 25 years of exemplary conduct and discipline.”
“The Petitioner’s journey, from being a public servant who fell into crime to a prisoner who earned 21 years of clean conduct and multiple commendations – demonstrates that the reformative objective of his sentence has been fulfilled.”
“While Kafka’s protagonist was ultimately destroyed by the alienation of those who could not see past his shell, the Constitution of India, anchored in the Reformative Theory, forbids the State from condemning a prisoner to such eternal alienation, when the objective of correction has been achieved,” the order stated.
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“To allow the ‘uneasy dreams’ of a decades-old crime, to eclipse the verified reality of the Petitioner’s Nil propensity for future violence, would be to reduce the justice system to a retributive cage,” Justice Krishna said, ordering Harpreet’s release.
A similar plea for premature release by Satender, the other convict in the case, is pending before the Delhi High Court.
