Vikas, Vishal Yadav get lifer for killing Nitish Katara

Two days after holding Vikas (35), son of dominant politician from UP D P Yadav, and his cousin Vishal Yadav (34) guilty for murdering former IAS Officer's son Nitish Katara, the District Court on Friday awarded life imprisonment to the brothers and also slapped fine of Rs 1,60,000 each.

The Additional Session Judge Ravinder Kaur however did not find the crime fall into the “rarest of rare” category and so refused to award them the death sentence demanded by the prosecution.

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Before announcing the quantum of punishment the court concluded Vikas as a habitual offender considering his involvement in the Jessica Lal murder case, and under sections 302, 364, 201 and 34 of the IPC charged them for murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. The utmost punishment under these sections is capital sentence while the minimum is life term imprisonment.

D P Yadav, his wife and Neelam Katara, mother of late Nitish were present in the court during hearing. While D P Yadav expressed his dissatisfaction over the judgment, Neelam Katara expressed his satisfaction with the court's verdict, refused to comment in detail, but said, “I respect the court order.”

Nitish Katara was murdered in the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002 by Vikas and his cousin Vishal after abducting him from a marriage party in Ghaziabad. The Yadavs were annoyed over intimate relationship of Nitish with their sister Bharti.

The duo took Nitish to a solitary place in the blind night, smashed his head with hammer and burnt his dead body. The incident was pleaded by prosecution as the rarest of rare category, but the court did not nodded with prosecution's demand of awarding capital punishment.