Ashok Gandhi's claim contradicted prosecution claim that Nitish was abducted by Vikas from a marriage party in Ghaziabad before his murder.
NEW DELHI: The prosecution in the Nitish Katara murder case on Friday questioned the reliability of a defence witness who testified that prime accused, Vikas Yadav, was present at his family function on the night when Nitish was allegedly abducted before murder.
Ashok Gandhi's claim contradicted prosecution claim that Nitish was abducted by Vikas from a marriage party in Ghaziabad before his murder.
Apart from Nitish the Ghaziabad marriage party function was attended by accused Vikas, co-accused and his cousin Vishal and their sister Bharti - who was a close friend of the victim, the prosecution said.
During the final arguments, Chief Prosecutor B S Joon referred to the deposition of Ashok Gandhi, who had tried to rebut the prosecution's claim, contending that accused Vikas Yadav was present in his son's ring ceremony on the night of incident.
Challenging Gandhi's claim, Joon told Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur that no reliance could be placed on the testimony of this witness who took the witness box only after five years of the incident and refrained from joining investigation at any point.
The chief prosecutor also cited a Supreme Court judgement in this regard and contended that Gandhi was not a "truthful" witness and was attempting to save Vikas and Vishal from being convicted for victim's murder.
"Why did not he (Gandhi earlier) go to the police to tell them that the accused was innocent as he was present with him on the date of incident. Dramatically, he appears only after five years to depose in his favour," Joon said.
Joon on Friday concluded reading out deposition of investigating officer Anil Samania, a key witness who told the court that a hammer, which was the weapon of offence and a wrist watch, allegedly gifted to Nitish by Bharti, were recovered at the instance of Vikas and Vishal.
The prosecutor claimed that the defence refrained from asking Samania many vital questions over the recovery, exposing weakness of their claim that the hammer and the watch were planted on the accused by the police.
According to the prosecution, the accused brothers had led the police party to recovery of the watch and hammer from a place in Khurja (Bulandshahr) in Uttar Pradesh after their arrest on February 23, 2002.
The court has now fixed December four, five and six to further hear the arguments in the case.
Katara was bludgeoned to death allegedly by Vikas and Vishal after being abducted from a marriage party in Ghaziabad on February 16-17, 2002.
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