Nitish Katara murder case: SC declines to extend interim bail of Vikas Yadav

New Delhi, Sep 8 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday declined to extend the interim bail of Vikas Yadav, a convict in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case.

A bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma told Yadav to move the Delhi High Court for extension or grant of fresh interim bail.

Earlier, the Justice Sundresh-led Bench had clarified that it would not further extend Yadav’s interim bail for post-operative care of his mother.

In an order passed on April 24 this year, the top court, in a relief to the petitioner, who has undergone actual incarceration for 23 years, enlarged him on temporary bail till May 8.

"Only for the purposes of enabling the petitioner to meet his ailing mother and to ensure that appropriate treatment is provided to her for the time being, we grant temporary bail to the petitioner,” a then bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan had ordered.

\However, the interim bail was extended from time to time by the apex court.

The apex court told Vikas Yadav, the son of Uttar Pradesh politician D.P. Yadav, to furnish a bail bond in the sum of Rs one lakh with one local surety in the like amount and to report to the local police station every day at 11 a.m.

It also asked the petitioner not to make any attempt to contact any of the witnesses who have deposed against him, including Neelam Katara, the mother of the deceased Nitish Katara, and her immediate relatives.

In its order, the Supreme Court opined that the petitioner’s mother be examined by a medical board of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, and directed submission of the medical report on or before May 7.

During the period of interim bail, Vikas Yadav was required to confine himself to his residence at Ghaziabad except visiting Yashoda Hospital after his mother was shifted back there from AIIMS Delhi.

Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav, among others, were convicted and sentenced to 25 years of actual imprisonment without consideration of remission for kidnapping Katara from a marriage party in February 2002 and then killing him for his alleged affair with their sister Bharti Yadav.

Katara was murdered as the Yadav duo did not approve of his alleged relationship with Bharti because they belonged to different castes, the trial court had observed in its verdict.

--IANS

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