Nitish Katara case: Vikas, Vishal Yadav to stay in Tihar till HC verdict, says prosecutor

NEW DELHI: Vikas and Vishal Yadav, undergoing life imprisonment in the Nitish Katara murder case, will not be shifted from Tihar jail to any other prison till the Delhi High Court pronounces its verdict on the appeals filed in the case, the jail authorities said today.

Appearing before a bench of justices Gita Mittal and J R Midha, special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan told the high court that he had got telephonic instructions from Sunil Gupta, Law Officer, Tihar jail, that "till the appeals are over and the judgement is pronounced by this court, there is no question of transfer of the convicts to any other jail."

After recording the statement of Krishnan, the bench disposed of an application filed by Neelam Katara, the victim's mother and complainant in the murder case, questioning a reported decision taken by the Tihar Jail authorities to shift the two convicts to a prison in Uttar Pradesh, their home state.

In her plea, Katara had referred to a news report of March 19 and said the Home Department of the Delhi government had written a letter to the home secretary of UP for transfer of Vishal and Vikas to a UP jail.

She had said that the Supreme Court had transferred the murder case trial from Ghaziabad to Delhi on the ground that father of Vikas Yadav --DP Yadav-- was a "very influential person" and there was an "immense threat to the witnesses" in the case.

The high court is hearing final arguments in the appeals filed by Vikas and Vishal against their conviction and life imprisonment awarded by a trial court in May 2008.

Besides the appeals of Vikas and Vishal, the high court is also hearing a petition moved by their hired killer Sukhdev Pehalwan who has challenged the life term given to him in the case in 2011.

The police have also filed an appeal seeking enhancement of sentence of the convicts from life term to death penalty.

Vikas and Vishal had killed Nitish Katara on the night of February 17, 2002 after abducting him from a marriage party in UP's Ghaziabad district as they were against their sister Bharati Yadav's affair with the victim.