Apex Court upholds conviction of Vikas and Vishal Yadav

The Apex Court Bench, comprising Justices JS Khehar and Adarsh Kumar Goel, heard senior lawyers including UR Lalit for almost two hours before saying that the High Court order “does not call for” any intervention. 

On February 6, Delhi high court had upheld a trial court order sentencing the three convicts to life imprisonment, saying Katara’s murder was a case of honour killing. However, it issued <g data-gr-id="38">notice</g> to the Delhi government on the scope of punishment and sought reply within six weeks. The Bench referred to the fact that almost of all prosecution witnesses had “resiled” from their statements in the trial court and said, “this shows how much power you wielded”.

 It trashed the submission that key prosecution witness Ajay Katara, who had last seen the victim alive in the company of the three accused in a Tata Safari car on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002 at Hapur Chungi in Ghaziabad, was a “planted and fabricated” witness. 

Neelam Katara, <g data-gr-id="23">mother</g> of Nitish Katara, said her stand had been vindicated by the High Court which held that the murder of her son was a case of honour killing.

“This is an important stage and the battle for justice will continue. With the high court’s judgement, my stand is vindicated that it is a case of honour killing. We will try for <g data-gr-id="40">death</g> sentence for the convicts,” Neelam said. “I am satisfied and happy with the verdict both as a mother and a citizen and thank the almighty, court, citizens of the country and the media for the decision,” she said.

Vikas, Vishal and Sukhdev Pehalwan were serving life term for abducting and killing business executive Nitish, who was the son of an IAS officer, after abducting him from a marriage party in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad, as they were opposed to his friendship with their sister Bharti. 

Vikas and Vishal were convicted by the trial court in 2008. Their accomplice Pehlwan, who had absconded for some time but was arrested in 2005, was tried separately and sentenced to life term by the court.