HC grants a week's parole to Katara killer

The Delhi High Court Friday granted a week's parole to Vishal Yadav, serving life imprisonment along with his cousin Vikas for abducting and killing Nitish Katara in 2002.

A division bench of Justice Geeta Mittal and Justice J.R. Midha granted parole to Vishal from May 20 to 27 to attend the wedding ceremony of his younger brother.

Vishal was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2008 along with his cousin Vikas and contract killer Sukhdev Pehalwan.

The court recently upheld the life imprisonment of the trio. It would decide pleas by police and Katara's mother seeking death penalty for them.

The court now posted the matter for May 27, saying it would hear arguments of the death penalty of convicts.

Vishal, in his parole plea, said his brother was getting married soon and his presence with the family on the occasion was necessary as there was no other male member to look after the arrangements.

He said he has already undergone a sentence of more than nine-and-half years without remission and he never misused bail granted to him.

Vikas and Vishal killed Katara on the night of Feb 17, 2002 after abducting him from a wedding party in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad.

The prosecution had sought death penalty for the convicts, saying Katara and Bharti Yadav -- sister of Vikas and cousin of Vishal -- were in an "intense relationship".

Her family's opposition to their friendship led to the killing of Katara, son of an Indian Administrative Service officer.

Vikas and Bharti are children of former parliamentarian D.P. Yadav.