Nitish Katara Murder Case: The hearing on the petition of Vikas Yadav, convicted of the Nitish Katara murder case, seeking his release has been postponed to 3 October. The Supreme Court has said that the matter will be taken up before a bench of 3 judges. Vikas Yadav got 25 years in this 2002 murder case. He has pleaded for premature release.
3 judges will hear
During the hearing, the late Nitish Katara’s mother Neelam Katara and the UP government opposed the petition. He said that the sentence awarded by the Supreme Court cannot be reduced through a new petition. At the same time, Vikas Yadav’s lawyer said that he will answer on every aspect, but a three-judge bench has already given orders on a similar issue, therefore, this matter should be sent to a three-judge bench. A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar accepted it.
What’s the matter?
Nitish Katara’s friendship was with Bharti, daughter of Bahubali DP Yadav. On the night of February 16, 2002, Bharti and Nitish were together at a wedding ceremony in Ghaziabad. Seeing this, Bharti’s brother Vikas got very angry. He along with his cousin Vishal kidnapped Nitish. He was taken to a distance of about 80 km from Ghaziabad and killed with a hammer.
Hearing in Delhi Court
For a few days the case went on in the Ghaziabad court. Nitish’s mother Neelam Katara filed a petition in the Supreme Court saying that the hearing was not being conducted properly under the pressure of DP Yadav. After this the Supreme Court transferred the case to Delhi.
25 years sentence
On May 30, 2008, the lower court sentenced Vikas, Vishal and Sukhdev Pehalwan to life imprisonment. On 2 April 2014, the Delhi High Court also upheld this decision. Neelam Katara filed an appeal in the Supreme Court demanding the death penalty for the culprits. The Supreme Court did not give the death sentence, but fixed the term of life imprisonment. In 2016, the Supreme Court sentenced Vikas and Vishal to 25 years each and Sukhdev to 20 years.