Nitish Katara murder case: SC dismisses Delhi Govt.’s plea

“I am asking for death penalty”, the senior lawyer said, adding that the convicts, who were educated and hailed from “good families”, had killed the youth in pre-meditated and brutal manner and mutilated the body before burning it.

“One appeal (of complainant Neelam Katara) has already been dismissed. We are not inclined to agree on enhancement of the sentence”, remarked the bench, as senior advocate Gopal Subramanium urged the court to reconsider its previous order. “This does not fall under the rarest of rare category”, the bench said.

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Delhi government’s plea demanding capital punishment to Vikas and Vishal Yadav, convicted for the murder of Nitish Katara.

“You (Subramaniam) please assist us to find out what could be that sentence between life imprisonment (which usually is for 14 years after which a prisoner gets released) and just short of death sentence”, it said and posted the matter for hearing in the first week of February.

Representing the Delhi government, Subramanium said the impact of the crime on society was to be considered.

The court had on August 17 upheld the conviction of the Yadav cousins and Pehalwan but had issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on the quantum of punishment. The bench responded that it was also willing to examine if there can be a few punishment “between life term and death sentence”.

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

Earlier, the apex court had rejected Neelam’s plea for conferring the death sentence on his murderers, Vikas and his cousin Vishal, holding that Katara’s murder wasn’t an honour killing.