New Delhi: The Centre and murdered business executive Nitish Katara’s mother Nilam Katara Tuesday vehemently opposed a plea in the Supreme Court by Vikas Yadav, who is serving a 25-year jail term in the sensational 2002 Nitish Katara murder case, on the issue of denial of remission benefit to the convict.
Senior advocate Aparajita Singh and advocate Durga Dutt, representing Nilam, strongly opposed Yadav’s plea before a bench comprising justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, also sought dismissal of the plea. Bhati said that the court’s time can’t be abused like this. Opposing Yadav's plea for remission, Bhati said Rs 5 crore should be imposed as costs. The petitioner’s counsel contended that Vikas Yadav had been in jail for 22 years without any remission. Katara’s counsel said Yadav’s plea should be dismissed.
After hearing submissions, the bench said it would hear the matter on October 3. The apex court in October 2016, awarded a jail term of 25 years without any remission to Vikas Yadav, son of controversial Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav, and his cousin Vishal Yadav in the kidnapping and killing of business executive Katara in 2002. They were against Katara’s alleged affair with Bharti Yadav, sister of Vikas, as they belonged to different castes.
Another co-convict Sukhdev Pehalwan was sentenced to a 20-year jail term in the case that too without any remission benefit. Yadav, in the plea, contended that the benefit of remission is part of the right to personal liberty protected under Article 21 of the Constitution. The plea contended that this cannot be restricted even by a judicial pronouncement of the courts.
The plea has urged the apex court to hold that Vikas Yadav is entitled to the benefit of suspension, remission or commutation of the sentence imposed upon him which may be granted by the appropriate government.
