Nitish Katara case: HC notice to police on bail plea of Vikas

The Delhi High Court today issued a notice to the city police on the bail plea of Vikas Yadav who along with his cousin Vishal is serving life term in the Nitish Katara murder case.

The Delhi High Court today issued a notice to the city police on the bail plea of Vikas Yadav who along with his cousin Vishal is serving life term in the Nitish Katara murder case.

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A division bench headed by Justice B D Ahmed sought the response from Delhi police on the application of Vikas who is seeking interim bail for a period of three months for attending marriage of his younger brother Kunal.

The court then posted the matter for further hearing on April 7, the next date of hearing. Vikas, son of controversial Uttar Pradesh leader D P Yadav, and his cousin Vishal are undergoing life imprisonment in Tihar jail after being convicted by a lower court for killing management graduate Katara on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002.

In the application, Vikas, whose appeal against the conviction is pending in the High Court, said his brother is getting married on April 29 and other related ceremonies would commence from April 14 itself. Eariler, in August 2009, the High Court had rejected the bail of the convict cousins saying "although both the accused persons were in custody for past several years, their incarceration cannot be a ground by itself for grant of bail".

The lower court, in May 2008, had sentenced Vikas, 37, and his cousin Vishal, 36, for killing Katara, son of an IAS officer. According to the prosecution, Vikas and Vishal had kidnapped Katara from a marriage party in Ghaziabad and later killed him as they were against Katara's intimacy with their sister Bharati Yadav.