High Court notice to police on Nitish Katara killer's parole plea

The Delhi High Court Tuesday issued notice to the Delhi Police on a parole plea of Nitish Katara's killer Vishal Yadav.

Vishal has sought a three-month parole to attend the wedding of his younger brother. He is serving life imprisonment along with his cousin Vikas for abducting and killing Katara in 2002.

A division bench of Justice Geeta Mittal and Justice J.R. Midha asked Delhi Police and Tihar jail authorities to file a status report on the issue and posted the matter for May 16.

Vishal was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2008 along with his cousin Vikas and contract killer Sukhdev Pehalwan.

The court recently upheld the life imprisonment of the trio. It would decide a plea by Katara's mother seeking death penalty for them.

Vishal, in his plea, said his brother was getting married soon and his presence with the family on the occasion was necessary as there was no other male member to look after the arrangements.

He said he has already undergone a sentence of more than nine-and-half years without remission and he never misused bail granted to him.

Vikas and Vishal killed Katara on the night of Feb 17, 2002 after abducting him from a wedding party in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad.

The prosecution had sought death penalty for the convicts, saying Katara and Bharti Yadav -- sister of Vikas and cousin of Vishal -- were in an "intense relationship". Her family's opposition to their friendship led to the killing of Katara, son of an Indian Administrative Service officer.

Vikas and Bharti are children of former parliamentarian DP Yadav.