HC grants two days time to Vikas to produce witnesses

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted two more days time to Vikas Yadav, the main accused in the Nitish Katara murder case, to produce four defence witnesses before the trial court.

Allowing four witnesses out of 12, who are yet to be examined, Justice V B Gupta directed the accused to produce Tanu Choudhury (estranged wife of key witness Ajay Katara), Circle Officer (CO) Ghaziabad city, one Journalist each from Jain TV and Star TV for recording of statements on 27 and 28 of this month.

The High Court earlier asked the trial court to conclude the examination of defence witnesses by September 28.

The trial court on September 20 had concluded the examination of defence witnesses in compliance with the High Court's previous order.

Earlier, the High Court had directed Vikas, who is the son of controversial Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav, to conclude the recording of statements of his witnesses by September 20, saying no further opportunity would be provided.

The city court had wrapped up the defence evidence in keeping with the deadline set by the Delhi High Court and fixed four dates next month -- October six, eight, nine and ten -- for hearing the final arguments in the case.

The examination of defence witnesses had started on July three and the accused produced a total of 24 witnesses.