The Supreme Court on Monday ruled out death penalty for the killers of Nitish Katara but kept open the possibility of awarding the Yadav brothers —Vikas and Vishal, a befitting prison term, though lesser than life sentence. A life sentence entails imprisonment for the entire life.
Currently Vikas, Vishal are in prison undergoing a 30-year prison sentence as punishment for Katara killing in 2002 while their helper Sukhdev Pehelwan was handed out a 20-year jail term. Vikas is the son of UP strongman DP Yadav, a former Member of Parliament.
The apex court had upheld the conviction of the trio but had kept open the question of sentence after the Yadav brothers alleged that 30 years was too harsh a punishment for their crime. On Monday, as the crucial hearing took place, senior advocate Gopal Subramanium intervened on behalf of Delhi Government pressing for death penalty for the murder of Katara. Witnessing the proceedings from the visitors’ gallery was Bharti Yadav, sister of Vikas Yadav. Katara was in love with Bharti and her brothers objected to this relationship.
The bench of Justices JS Khehar and R Banumathi told Subramanium, “It is a single hammer blow. How does it become rarest of rare crime to deserve death penaltyIJ” Dismissing the State’s appeal, the bench allowed Subramanium to assist with regard to the quantum of sentence. It said, “On merits, their conviction has been upheld. Question of awarding death is also over. Now we have to find out what is that in between life and death. It is an important thing and must be decided immediately.”
The matter will now be heard in the first week of February next year. This is the second round of arguments on the question of sentence as the apex court had earlier dismissed a petition by deceased’s mother Neelam Katara for enhancing the punishment of her son’s killers to death.
The bench while upholding the trio’s conviction in August this year had given its view that this case could not be treated as an act of honour killing as the families had agreed to the relationship. The Court referred to the facts of the case where Bharti was allowed to visit Katara and invite him over to her sister’s wedding. It was the venue of this very same wedding where Bharti and Katara were last seen together dancing. The bench maintained its view that the dance was perhaps found “inappropriate” by the brothers who then plotted a plan to take away Katara to a secluded spot where he was done to death.
Subramanium informed the Court that this murder was committed while the Yadavs were on bail in another murder case. Even after being sentenced to life by a trial court, the accused had made close to 100 hospital visits, he added. The HC had restricted their sentence to 30 years without remission.