Killers of Nitish Katara deserve death: Delhi Police to HC

New Delhi: The city police on Friday told the Delhi High Court that Vikas Yadav and two others, convicted for killing Nitish Katara in 2002, deserve death penalty as the offence was “pre-meditated” and committed in a “cold-blooded” manner. [caption id=“attachment_1677777” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Nitish Katara.[/caption] “The convicts (Vikas, Vishal and Sukhdev Pehalwan), in furtherance of their common intention, murdered the victim Nitish Katara in a cold-blooded, planned and pre-meditated manner, without any provocation,” the counsel for Delhi Police told a bench of justices Gita Mittal and J R Midha. Rajesh Mahajan, appearing for the police, said “the brutality of the crime not only lies in the manner of its execution but also in its conception”. “The burning of the body after killing the deceased and leaving it without any clothes demonstrated a depraved state of mind and lack of remorse as the accused displayed no respect even for the human body,” he said. Delhi Police and the victim Nitish’s mother Neelam Katara are seeking capital punishment or an enhanced life sentence for Vikas, Vishal Yadav and Sukhdev Pehalwan. While seeking the gallows for the three convicts, the police further said the age of the convicts should not be considered as a mitigating factor for not awarding the death penalty. The standing counsel for police also cited various apex court judgements, including the verdict against convict Amir Ajmal Kasab in the Mumbai 26/11 terror attack case to drive home the point that age alone is not a factor for not awarding death penalty as Kasab was only 19 year-old. The convicts are a “serious threat” to the society if they are released and may harm the society at large, he said. “The trial court as well as this court have already held that this is a case of honour killing. I want to add one more thing that the honour killing falls under the rarest of rare category of cases warranting imposition of death penalty,” he said. Vikas, Vishal and Sukhdev Pehalwan are serving life term for abducting and killing Nitish Katara, a business executive and son of an IAS officer, on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002. They did not approve of the victim’s affair with Bharti, sister of Vikas. PTI