SC rejects petition by Nitish Katara killer Vikas Yadav

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition to seek parole filed by
politician DP Yadav’s son Vikas Yadav who was convicted for murder in 2008. “How can you get parole,”
a bench of the Supreme Court chaired by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi putting down Vikas Yadav’s request
that he should be released on bail because he had been in jail for 17-and-a-half years.

“Why and how are you entitled to bail,” Chief Justice Gogoi said, reminding
him that his review and curative petitions against his conviction had already
been dismissed.

Vikas Yadav and cousin Vishal Yadav were convicted for kidnapping Nitish
Katara, a business executive and the son of a railway officer, from a marriage
party on February 16-17, 2002 before killing him for
his affair with his sister.

The top court had sentenced them to 25 years, saying that “only
criminals are crying for justice” in this country. The Supreme Court had held
that the murder was a case of “honour killing” and deserved a harsh punishment
to send across a strong message to possible offenders. A third accomplice
Sukhdev Pehalwan was sentenced to 20 years.

The three had been accused of hammering Nitish to death and burning his
body.

Nitish Katara’s mother Neelam who played a key role to campaign for justice
to get the killers of her son punished.The case also led to the fall of politician and UP
strongman DP Yadav’s empire had opposed Vikas Yadav’s previous attempts to get
parole from the high court.

She had argued that if Vikas Yadav was released on parole, he could well go
on to kill someone else.