New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Friday awarded life imprisonment to Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav's son Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal without remission for 25 years in the Nitish Katara murder case.
A special bench of Justice Gita Mittal and Justice JR Midha rejected plea for death sentence to Vikas Yadav, Vishal Yadav, and contract killer Sukhdev Pehalwan.
The court also awarded life imprisonment to Sukhdev Pehelwan, third convict, without remission for 20 years. The high court also awarded additional 5 year-jail term to all three convicts for destruction of evidence in the case.
Both Vikas and Vishal were also fined Rs 50 lakh each.
Since April, the court has been hearing the appeals of police and Katara's mother Neelam Katara who sought death sentence to the three convicts, who are serving life terms in the Tihar Central Jail.
Reacting to the court's verdict, victim's mother Neelam Katara said, "We are happy that the court has awarded them an enhanced sentence. After reading the judgment we will approach the Supreme Court appealing that they should be given death penalty."
Nitish Katara, a 25-year-old business executive in Delhi, was murdered on February 17, 2002, by Vikas Yadav, son of influential politician DP Yadav. Nitish was allegedly in a relationship with Vikas's sister Bharti Yadav.
The convicts had sought leniency in sentencing as well as exemption from death sentence, saying they can reform and their act was not so brutal or gruesome that it deserved capital punishment.
The high court had on April 2, 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.
