SC: Delhi police can file appeal in Katara murder case

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld Delhi Police’s power to appeal to enhance the punishment given to Vikas and Vishal Yadav from life to death sentence in the Nitish Katara murder case.

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld Delhi Police’s power to appeal to enhance the punishment given to Vikas and Vishal Yadav from life to death sentence in the Nitish Katara murder case.

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A bench headed by Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan dismissed UP government and Vikas Yadav’s plea to disallow Delhi Police from filing the appeal. Both urged the Supreme Court to let the UP government prosecute the two before the Delhi High Court as the state was paying the charges for the special prosecutor.

“Why this case was transferred to Delhi was on the apprehension that the UP police would not prosecute the accused properly. It wasn’t transferred on the ground that some judge in Ghaziabad was biased,” the Chief Justice said.

When the advocates pressed their plea on ground of paying the special prosecutor’s fees, the bench added: “It was your baby. You must pay for it. There is nothing wrong. But, that does not justify your claim to prosecute the accused.”

The Delhi High Court had, in August last year, turned down Vikas’s plea that Delhi Police’s appeal seeking death was not maintainable as the prosecuting state was Uttar Pradesh.

The high court had held: “The legal position is that once a case is transferred by the Supreme Court from one state to another, the transferor state no longer retains control over the prosecution to be conducted in a Court situated in the transferee State.”