Neelam apprehends Vikas Yadav may kill again if given parole

Neelam Katara today told the Delhi High Court that if Vikas Yadav, convicted of murdering her son Nitish, is released on parole, he may kill someone else and 10 years later the victim's mother could be standing before the court seeking justice.
The submission was made before Justice Siddharth Mridul while opposing Vikas' plea for four weeks' parole to sell his ancestral property in Uttar Pradesh.
"I do not want to hear that after 10 years some other woman stands in the court (Delhi High Court) and says that her son has been killed by the petitioner (Vikas) while he was out on parole," Neelam said and opposed the plea of Vikas, who is serving 30-year jail term without remission for killing Nitish Katara.

She further submitted that the convicts in the case have not even taken a "baby step" to reform.
This was supported by Delhi Police's Additional standing counsel Rajesh Mahajan, who said during the trial and pending of the appeal, Vikas has been manipulating and misusing the system.
"His (Vikas) plea for parole is not maintainable," Delhi Police counsel said.

Whereas, senior advocate N Hariharan, appearing for Vikas, said this attitude of the authorities will make him an animal and even worse.
"There is every chance of his reformation," he contended.
The arguments which remained inconclusive will resume on March 17.

The high court on March 27 last year granted seven-day custody parole to Vikas to visit his 93-year-old grandfather who underwent an angioplasty.
The high court had on February 6, 2015 enhanced the sentence of Vikas and his cousin Vishal from life imprisonment to 25 years without remission for murdering Nitish and five more years for destruction of evidence in the case.
Yadavs' acquaintance Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehelwan was also awarded an enhanced life sentence of 20 years without remission by the high court.
The three were awarded life term by a trial court for abducting and killing Nitish, a business executive and son of an IAS officer, on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002. They did not approve of the victim's affair with Bharti, daughter of D P Yadav.

The high court had on April 2, 2014 upheld the verdict of the lower court, describing the offence as "honour killing" stemming from a "deeply-entrenched belief" in caste system.
In August last year, the Supreme Court had upheld the conviction of Vikas and others in the case.