Nitish Katara murder trial ends

The six-year-old murder case involves Vikas and Vishal Yadav, son and nephew of Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav as the main accused, reports Naziya Alvi.

The trial in the Nitish Katara murder case came to an end on Tuesday. The court will fix a date for the pronouncement of the verdict on May 14.

HT Image

The six-year-old murder case involves Vikas and Vishal Yadav, son and nephew of Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav as the main accused.

The two allegedly killed Katara, on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002, as they were averse to his relationship with their sister Bharti Yadav.

The court has also asked both the parties to file their written arguments in the case by April 30.

The prosecution in this case has largely relied on circumstantial evidence and testimony of a key witness, Ajay Katara, who had seen the accused taking the victim in their car on the fateful night near Hapur Chungi in Ghaziabad.

The accused contended that the chain of events in the case remained incomplete as none of the prosecution witnesses had either supported the abduction or identified the main accused.

They also challenged the testimony of Ajay Katara, saying the police recorded his statement more than 20 days after the incident.

Another crucial witness in the case is Bharti Yadav. It took the court three years and several non bailable warrants to record her statement. Bharti Yadav finally deposed in November 2006.