The Delhi High Court Friday sentenced Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav to 30 years in prison for the murder of Nitish Katara, a friend of Vikas Yadav’s sister.
But a special bench of Justice Gita Mittal and Justice J.R. Midha, however, rejected the prosecution’s plea to award death penalty to the two Yadavs and Sukhdev Pahalwan, who carried out the killing.
Nitish Katara was 25 when he was burnt to death in Ghaziabad near Delhi as punishment for dating Bharti Yadav, whose father is politician DP Yadav. In 2002, he was attending a friend’s wedding with Ms Yadav when he was abducted by her brother, Vikas and cousin, Vishal.
His corpse, charred so badly that it could not be identified at first, was found a few days later near a highway. The police used DNA samples to confirm the body was his.
During a long trial, Ms Yadav denied that she had been romantically involved with Mr Katara; they had met at business school. Nitish Katara’s mother, Neelam, fought a tough battle against a powerful opponent – Mr Yadav wielded considerable influence as a politician.
In 2008, Vikas and Vishal Yadav were convicted for Mr Katara’s murder by a Delhi court which sentenced them to life in prison. Mrs Katara and the Delhi Police then asked the High Court to either sentence the convicts to death, or make their punishment tougher.
