Nitish Katara murder: SC to pronounce quantum of sentence on Monday

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Monday decide the quantum of sentence to be awarded to Vikas Yadav, his cousin Vishal and their aide Sukhdev Pehalwan, who all were convicted in the sensational 2002 Nitish Katara murder case. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan will pronounce the verdict on the appeals filed by Vikas and Vishal against the Delhi High Court order which had enhanced the life term to 25 years in jail without remission and an additional five years for destruction of evidence in the case by terming the murder of Katara as “honour killing”. [caption id=“attachment_3018304” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Supreme Court. AFP[/caption] Yadavs’ acquaintance Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehelwan was also awarded an enhanced life sentence of 25 years without remission by the court which held that the crime fell in “rarest of rare category”, but saved them from the gallows saying possibility of their reformation and rehabilitation is not “unforseeably foreclosed”. The Supreme Court had on 17 August, 2015, upheld the conviction of Vikas, Vishal and Sukhdev, saying “only criminals are crying for justice” in this country. While upholding the conviction, the apex court had said that it will separately consider hearing pleas on the limited aspect relating to enhancement of quantum of sentence of the three convicts by the High Court. It had issued notice to the Delhi government on the scope of punishment and sought the reply within six weeks. Earlier, the high court had held that the murder of Katara, who was in love with Vikas’s sister, was an “honour killing” which was done in a “very carefully planned and premeditated” manner with “extreme vengeance”. It had also enhanced the fines imposed on Vikas and Vishal by slapping an amount of Rs 54 lakh each on them, to be deposited in the trial court within six weeks. Vikas (39), Vishal (37) and Sukhdev (40) were serving life term awarded by the lower court in May 2008 for abducting and killing Katara, a business executive and the son of a railway officer, on the night of 16-17 February, 2002, as they opposed the victim’s affair with Bharti, daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav. The high court had on 2 April, 2014, upheld the verdict of the lower court in the case by describing the offence as “honour killing” stemming from a “deeply-entrenched belief” in caste system. Katara was abducted and killed by Vikas, Vishal and Sukhdev as they did not approve of the victim’s affair with Bharti because they belonged to different castes, the court said.