Nitish Katara murder: Bharti forced to snap ties with victim, say police

New Delhi: The police today told the Delhi High Court that Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal, serving life terms for killing MBA graduate Nitish Katara in 2002, had the knowledge about their sister’s intimacy with the victim and pressurised her to break her ties with him. Beginning his final argument against the convicts’ appeal before the bench of justices Geeta Mittal and J R Midha, Special Public Prosecutor said, “Bharti was under duress and was advised by her family members to call off her relationship.” [caption id=“attachment_434066” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Yadavs forced Bharti to sever ties with Nitish.[/caption] Arguing on the convicts’ motive to murder Katara, the counsel said several documents including the greeting cards and gifts exchanged between Bharti and Nitish would establish their “romantic” liaison. Referring to the contents of a Bharti’s letter to Nitish, the counsel said, “The evidence is more than enough to establish that they (Bharti and Nitish) were in romantic relationship and it was not casual but intense.” Countering the argument of counsel for Vikas and Vishal that the family members knew their friendship but they had no knowledge about their plan for marriage, the public prosecutor said Nitish had attended several functions organised by the Bharti’s family, including her sister’s birth day party. The lawyer further argued that Bharti had opened a bank account for which she had given Nitish’s residential address as her own and had also travelled with him to Mumbai. The prosecution would continue its arguments tomorrow. The court was hearing appeals of Vishal, Vikas, son of former Rajya Sabha MP D P Yadav, and hired killer Sukhdev Pehalwan, who are serving life terms in Tihar. PTI