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SC frees Sukhdev Pehalwan, says he’s served 20 yrs in jail for Nitish Katara murder
Pehalwan moved the top court to seek his release in view of the October 2016 verdict that replaced the punishment of a life sentence with 20 years in prison without remission
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the release of Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehalwan, one of the three men convicted of killing business executive Nitish Katara in 2002, observing that he had completed his jail sentence of 20 years in March this year.
The ruling came hours after another bench extended the interim bail granted to Vikas Yadav, also convicted in the same case, by four more weeks, but rejected his plea that challenged the court order stipulating he spend 25 years in prison without remission.
Pehalwan had moved the top court to seek his release after serving 20 years in prison in view of the top court’s October 2016 verdict that replaced the punishment of a life sentence with 20 years in prison without remission.
The Delhi government had interpreted the verdict to mean that he could apply for remission after serving 20 years in prison, which he completed in March this year. When he did, the government’s Sentence Review Board rejected the request, leading Pehalwan to move the court.
Senior advocate Siddharth Mridul, who appeared for Pehelwan, argued that the Delhi high court’s jail sentence, as upheld by the top court in 2016, required his client to undergo a fixed term sentence of 20 years without remission, replacing the earlier punishment of a life sentence.
The top court agreed. “Once the court has quantified a sentence without remission for 20 years, there is no sentence beyond 20 years,” the bench of justices BV Nagarathna and KV Vishwanathan said, accepting Pehalwan’s argument that he had served his jail term.
“In these circumstances, he is entitled to release…He shall be released forthwith if not wanted in any other case,” the court said.
Additional solicitor general (ASG) Archana Pathak Dave, appearing for the city government, had contested this view, arguing that the judgment only said Pehalwan would be eligible to be considered for remission after 20 years. She said that a life sentence will continue as a punishment in his case.
The law officer also said his case for remission was considered and rejected by the Sentence Review Board and dismissed on March 28 on the ground that he has “potential for committing crime.”
The bench took exception to the SRB order. “How can SRB sit over judgment of this court. Once a convict has completed a sentence, he is entitled to release. You are mixing it up with remission.. If this is the attitude of the government, then every convict will die in jail even if he has completed the sentence,” the court said.
Former Rajya Sabha member DP Yadav’s son Vikas, his cousin Vishal, and their henchman Sukhdev Pehalwan, were convicted and sentenced for kidnapping Nitish Katara from a marriage party on the intervening night of February 16 and 17, 2002, and then killing him over his alleged relationship with Vikas’s sister Bharti — a hate crime as the Yadavs and Katara belonged to different castes.
In 2006, the top court shifted the trial of the case from Ghaziabad to Delhi on a petition moved by Neelam Katara, Nitish’s mother.
In July 2011, a Delhi court awarded life terms to the accused, including Pehalwan. This decision was upheld by the Delhi high court in 2015 with a rider that 20 years out of the actual punishment would be without consideration of remission. On October 3, 2016, the Supreme Court upheld this decision but modified the jail sentence, ruling that the prison terms for the three would run concurrently and not consecutively, as ordered by the high court.
A bench of justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh, which had earlier taken up Vikas Yadav’s plea questioning the order that he should serve 25 years in jail without remission. “We are not inclined to exercise our power under Article 142. The petition is dismissed giving liberty to the petitioner to approach the high court,” the bench said.
The court, however, extended his interim bail by four weeks on a request by senior advocate Guru Krishnakumar, who appeared for Yadav. The interim bail, granted earlier to care for his mother, was set to expire on Tuesday. The court said Vikas Yadav would be free to seek further orders from the high court.
Senior advocate Aparajita Singh, who appeared for Nitish Katara’s mother in both cases, informed the court about the power and influence wielded by the convicts. She cited a Delhi high court order in April where the judge, while considering furlough for Pehelwan, had recused from hearing the case while disclosing in open court that someone on behalf of the convict had approached the judge.
