Nitish Katara Murder Case Verdict

Honour killing is nothing new to India but there were a few cases that have led to some positive change. Nitish Katara, a business executive and son of an IAS officer, was killed in February 2002 for being in a relationship with Bharti Yadav—sister of Vikas Yadav, both children of DP Yadav, a politician and an alleged underworld don of Uttar Pradesh.

Katara’s body was found severely battered and burned at Khurja, 80 km from Ghaziabad, where he was last seen at a wedding that he attended with Bharti. Vikas, his cousin Vishal Yadav and a contract killer called Sukhdev Pehalwan were arrested. But most witnesses turned hostile. Those who had seen Katara being taken into a vehicle by the Yadavs backtracked. Some even denied that Katara and Bharti were in a relationship.

The Delhi government recently appointed Gopal Subramaniam and Dayan Krishnan as lawyers to contest the appeal of Vikas and Vishal in the Supreme Court. The move came after a request by Katara’s mother, Neelam, to the Delhi government. This February, the Delhi High Court had enhanced the sentence for the cousins from life imprisonment to 25 years without remission for murder, and five additional years for destruction of evidence.

Finally, after a 13-year-long battle, the Supreme Court upheld their conviction, saying it was ‘convinced’ of their guilt. The Supreme Court referred to the fact that almost all prosecution witnesses had ‘resiled’ from their statements in the trial court, and said, ‘this shows how much power you wielded’. It said that the petitioners had been granted ‘indulgence’ enough by the High Court and they were wasting judicial time.

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