Vikas Yadav questions trial proceedings in Katara murder case

"This small little and legitimate benefit of doubt should have gone to the accused. The trial court denied that benefit in the case," lawyer U R Lalit, appearing for Vikas, told a bench of Justices Gita Mittal and J R Midha.

Anil Singhal, who had conducted the postmortem on victim Katara, had testified in the lower court that there was "less" chance that the injury on the head of the victim was caused by the hammer allegedly recovered at the instance of the accused during the probe.

As the expert witness, who was not shown the hammer earlier during the probe by the police, did not opine that the injuries on the victim were "likely" to be caused by the recovered hammer, the non-conclusive nature of the statement favoured the accused, the lawyer contended.

Referring to the relevant part of the lower court's verdict, which disbelieved the medical expert, Lalit said "I have got a serious objection to the issue."

The lawyer also disputed the credibility of recovery of the hammer saying neither "disclosure" statements were signed by the accused nor the doctor was shown the alleged weapon of offence during the probe and prior to recording of his statement during the trial.

Vikas, his cousin Vishal Yadav and Sukhdev Pehalwan were awarded life term for killing Nitish Katara, a business executive, after abducting him from a marriage party at Ghaziabad on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002 because they did not like the victim's proximity to Vikash's sister Bharti.