Nitish Katara murder case: SC upholds conviction of Vikas Yadav, Vishal Yadav and Sukhdev Pehalwan

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday upheld conviction of Vikas Yadav, Vishal Yadav and Sukhdev Pehalwan in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case.
A bench of justices JS Khehar and AK Goel, however, agreed to hear their plea for reducing the quantum of sentence awarded by Delhi high court.
The court issued notice to Delhi government to respond on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to them.
Katara murder case is a classic example of how the rich and powerful people try to influence the justice delivery system, the apex court said.
On February 6 this year, Delhi high court had enhanced the life imprisonment of Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal to 25 years in jail without any remission and an additional five years for destruction of evidence in the honour killing of Nitish Katara in 2002.
The court had held that the murder of Katara, who was in love with Vikas's sister, was an "honour killing" which was done in a very "carefully planned and premeditated" manner and with "extreme vengeance".
Vikas and Vishal had moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi high court's verdict.
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According to the prosecution, Vikas and Vishal killed Katara on the night of Febraury 17, 2002, 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 Bharti are children of former parliamentarian DP Yadav.
Vishal was convicted in 2008 along with Vikas for kidnapping and murdering Katara, son of an Indian Administrative Service officer.
The Yadavs had sought a re-trial of the case, saying the trial was not conducted in accordance with law.
They had challenged the trial court order convicting them and sentencing them to life imprisonment. Katara's mother and police had also challenged the trial court's order and sought death penalty for three convicts.
(With inputs from agencies)