New Delhi:
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed Vishal Yadav’s plea seeking parole to file an appeal challenging his conviction and life sentence in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case.
Vishal’s cousin Vikas Yadav is a co-accused in the case and is serving a jail term. The High Court said that Vishal was given custodial parole in 2015 but he did not use it.
It said that the consistent refusal to accept custodial parole to file Special Leave Petition (SLP) before the Apex Court does not work to its advantage as it is not that there is denial of exercise of a constitutional right, Rather, to examine and allow it with such safeguards as are necessary to secure the life, liberty and security of the victim and witnesses.
Even in 2018 when the High Court had rejected his parole, it had said that the petitioner would be granted custodial parole for filing the SLP and an application could be filed in this regard.
The court said that the opportunity was not availed to the extent that it is not beneficial to the petitioner as well.
Justice Anish Dayal said Vishal’s contention of denial of a constitutional right in the context of a petition for parole has to be appreciated, seen, weighed and sorted in this light and not viewed in isolation Needed
The High Court said, “The petitioner (Vishal) is not prevented from pursuing his remedy of filing SLP before the Supreme Court, even if he wants to attack even after 8 years of the judgment.”
It dismissed Vishal’s plea seeking his release on regular parole for four weeks to file an SLP against the High Court judgment which had upheld his conviction and enhanced the sentence.
“The rejection of parole by this Court in June 2020, relying on the exception made in the circular of 2020 regarding release of prisoners during the Covid-19 pandemic and excluding those whose sentence was not to be considered, reflects that the case of the petitioner was indeed exceptional,” it said.
The court noted that the past conduct (pre-trial, during investigation, during the trial and in custody) of the petitioner as well as co-accused Vikas was “gross, extraordinary, egregious and grave, to say the least, and not can be ignored or taken lightly for the purpose of considering this plea”.
Justice Dayal observed that it would not be prudent to assess the petitioner’s petition as a simple isolated petition for filing SLP and completely ignore and overlook his past conduct.
The court said that it cannot turn away from these facts and circumstances.
Vishal sought to be released on parole on the ground that since the records of the case run into 2000 pages, his presence along with his counsel was necessary for preparation and finalization of SLP.
The petition states that he has undergone imprisonment for 18 years and 4 months and was last released on parole for 10 days in May 2014 and since then 8 years have passed.
The parole plea was opposed by the police as well as Neelam Katara, the mother of the victim, Nitish Katara, on the grounds that she had made a similar prayer earlier and in 2015 the court had refused to release her on parole and only sent her to custody. It was only parole. given.
Special Public Prosecutor Rajesh Mahajan submitted that the petitioner has refused to seek custodial parole for reasons unknown and the right to file SLP is always available from the jail.
He said that the complainant Neelam Katara and witness Ajay Katara have been provided security due to the threat to their lives at the hands of the accused persons which is still continuing and this aspect was also considered by the High Court while enhancing the term of life imprisonment. ,
On October 3, 2016, the Supreme Court sentenced Vikas and Vishal to 25 years in prison without any remission for their role in the sensational kidnapping and murder of Katara.
Another co-convict Sukhdev Pahalwan was also sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Earlier, the Delhi High Court, while upholding the life sentence awarded to Vikas and Vishal Yadav by the trial court, had fixed 30-year sentence for both without any remission. It sentenced the wrestler to 25 years in prison.
All three were convicted and sentenced in February 2002 for abducting Katara from a wedding procession and then murdering her for her alleged relationship with Vikas’s sister Bharti Yadav.
Bharti is the daughter of UP politician DP Yadav who is in jail for another murder case.
The trial court in its judgment said that Katara was murdered because Vishal and Vikas Yadav did not approve of her relationship with Bharti as they belonged to different castes.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)