Nitish Katara case: Court sets May 14 for verdict

The six-year old Nitish Katara murder case to meet its fate is just 22 days ahead, when a Delhi court on Tuesday said to pronounce the verdict on May 14.

The decision of the pronouncement of the final verdict came about a month later when the additional session judge Ravinder Kaur condemned the defence counsel G K Bharti for causing needlessly delay by seeking frequent adjournments in the 2002 Nitish Katara’s murder case and advised him to conclude the final arguments by April 15.

The prosecution had already completed their final arguments in the case in December last year. The session court also asked both- the counsel and prosecution to submit their written arguments by April 30.

On Monday the prosecution refuted the arguments of defence counsel of the accused Vikas and Vishal Yadav that the key witness Ajay Katara’s statement could not be relied upon on account of his one month late approach after the incident to the police.

The prosecution argued the delay in recording of the statements of some of the witnesses comprising Ajay Katara was quite natural in the wake of the accused past criminal record. Besides the prosecution quoted judgments of the Supreme Court said that delayed recording of the Ajay’s statement would be valid. The prosecution also successfully countered the defence lawyer’s claim that the former had failed to establish the involvement of the accused in the abduction and murder of victim.

It is to be noted here that in May 2006 in his confession statement before the police, Vikas Yadav, the main accused in the case had accepted that he had first hit Katara with a hammer on his head and later burnt his body, a news channel had claimed. Yadav also confessed that the affair between Katara and his sister Bharti had brought bad name to the family.

Nitish Katara, the son of a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer was murdered in February 2001. The bone of contention between the two was the ongoing love affair between Katara and Bharti, sister of Yadav.

Charges in the Katara murder case were framed against the three accused Vikas Yadav, his cousin Vishal Yadav and Sukhdev Yadav on November 23, 2002.

Vikas Yadav, son of former Rajya Sabha MP D.P. Yadav, was also one of the accused in the murder of model Jessica Lall.

Nitish Katara murder case has been one of the most highlighted and media catchy besides Priyadarshini Mattu and Jessica Lall murder case. The prime accused in two of the latter cases have been punished by the court of law lends some hope of ray in the former case.

The high profile perpetrators Santosh Kumar Singh and Manu Sharma have been penalised by the court of law respectively in Mattu and Lall murder case.

The common people’s faith on justice has been maintained by the court especially when some of the high profile accused in recent years is penalised by the fourth pillar of the democratic India and forced the public to think ‘justice delayed is not the justice denied.’