Nitish Katara murder case: Supreme Court dismisses Vikas Yadav's parole plea, orders him to complete 25-years' sentence

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a parole plea filed by Vikas Yadav, one of those convicted in the Nitish Katara murder case. [caption id=“attachment_2462292” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Nitish Katara. Agencies[/caption] Yadav had filed an appeal against the cancellation of his plea for parole. He had also filed a writ petition seeking his release on the ground that he had undergone continuous incarceration for 17 years. The plea was sought to be raised on the “larger issue of violation of fundamental rights”, according to Bar and Bench. Both were dismissed by the Bench. “You have been sentenced for 25 years of imprisonment, complete it,” the Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Surya Kant, told Yadav. Vikas Yadav, his brother Vishal Yadav and another convict Sukhdev Pehelwan were awarded life terms by a lower court in May 2008. The Delhi High Court upheld the sentences in April 2014, describing the offence as “honour killing" stemming from a “deeply-entrenched belief" in caste system. In the ruling, the court enhanced Vikas and Vishal Yadav’s sentences to 30 years, of which 25 years were to be served without remission, against which the accused had appealed. In an appeal against the high court ruling filed in the Supreme Court in 2015, Vikas and Vishal Yadav were awarded 25 years’ rigorous imprisonment and Pehelwan was given a sentence of 20 years, without remission. In 2017, the apex court had dismissed the plea by Vikas Yadav seeking a review of its verdict. Nitish Katara was kidnapped and murdered in 2002. Vikas Yadav, the son of a former Member of Parliament DP Yadav, was opposed to his sister’s relationship with Katara. Petitions seeking the death penalty for the convicts filed by the Delhi government and Nitish Katara’s mother Neelam were dismissed by the Supreme Court in November 2015.