Nitish Katara murder witness arrested, sent to judicial custody

Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Oct 3 (IANS) Ajay Katara, the main witness in the 2002 murder of Delhi youth Nitish Katara, was Friday arrested here on charges of kidnapping a property dealer and remanded to 14 days judicial custody by a court, the police said.

Superintendent of Police Vijay Bhushan said Ajay Katara Thursday night kidnapped Dharmendra Yadav, a property dealer, who was later rescued by a police patrolling party that heard his cries for help.

However, the patrolling party let both go free. Dharmendra Yadav then filed a complaint against Ajay Katara, leading to the latter's arrest.

Police arrested Ajay Katara even though he claimed that the property dealer was trying to kill him. He was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Ajay Katara was produced before additional chief judicial magistrate Sapna Mishra Tripathi's court at Ghaziabad, where defence lawyer Jitendra Kumar Singh submitted the bail application.

The defence lawyer said that Ajay Katara had been booked in a false and concocted case. He said Ajay Katara is being made a scapegoat for being a witness in the Nitish Katara murder case.

The court rejected the bail plea and remanded him to 14 days judicial custody.

Ajay Katara told IANS that he was being victimised as the police were helping Dharmendra Yadav under pressure from D.P. Yadav, a politician from Uttar Pradesh's ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), whose son and nephew have been convicted in the Nitish Katara murder case.

Ajay Katara claimed that Dharmendra Yadav had fired at him at around 4.00 p.m. Thursday, following which he lodged a police complaint.

He added that he had also filed a case of attempt to murder against Dharmendra Yadav a few months ago and a non-bailable warrant was issued against the latter.

Ajay Katara's testimony was crucial in the conviction of D.P. Yadav's son Vikas and nephew Vishal in the murder of Nitish Katara.

Nitish Katara, son of a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was in love with D.P. Yadav's daughter Bharti. Nitish was kidnapped and murdered after he attended a wedding in Ghaziabad Feb 16, 2002. His half burnt body was found in a village in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.