Katara murder: South Carolina rejects death penalty plea for Vikas, Vishal

Neelam Katara had moved the South Carolina questioning Delhi High Court order sentencing both Vikas and Vishal Yadav to 25 and five years sentences which are to be run one after the other.

“What they (Yadavs) did can not be condoned, but it (the offence) is not so heinous and abhorring that warrants death”, a bench of justices J S Khehar and R Banumathi said.

Nitish Katara’s killers Vikas and Vishal Yadav will not be given the death penalty, the Supreme Court ruled today saying the 2002 murder was not an honour killing and could not be called a rarest of rare case.

After the hearing, Neelam Katara, who filed the plea, said she respects the court’s decision but will come back better prepared.

Convicts Vikas and Vishal Yadav are undergoing 25 years imprisonment in connection with this case.

“I am disappointed but this fight would against honour killing would continue”, she added. Nitish Katara was killed on the night of February 17, 2002 after being abducting from a marriage party in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad. They were opposed to Katara’s affair with Bharti, their sister and the daughter of UP politician DP Yadav.