New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Wednesday refused to grant urgent hearing to the bail plea of Vikas Yadav, undergoing life imprisonment in the Nitish Katara murder case, to attend the wedding ceremony of his sister Bharati Yadav.
A Bench of Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar posted for tomorrow the hearing on Vikas` petition seeking three months interim bail to look after the preparation and arrangements for his sister`s marriage scheduled for November 1.
Vikas, son of controversial Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav, was convicted along with his cousin Vishal Yadav for kidnapping and murdering Katara, a close friend of Bharati.
His counsel Sumit Verma sought urgent hearing of the petition stating that the family needs Vikas` presence at home for the ceremonies commencing from October 20.
However, the court declined to hear the matter today.
A Bench of Justices B D Ahmed and Veena Birbal had yesterday refused to hear the bail petition citing personal reasons.
Vikas and Vishal were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court on May 28 last year. The duo had kidnapped and killed Katara, son of an IAS officer, on the intervening night of February 17-18, 2002 from a marriage party in Ghaziabad as they were against the relationship between the victim and Bharati.
The trial of the case was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court after Katara`s mother Neelam had expressed apprehension that she will not get a fair trial in Uttar Pradesh.
Bharati, who had left for United Kingdom after the incident and had been avoiding to depose as witness in the case finally turned up in 2006 to record her statement after the trial court had issued non-bailable warrant against her.
The convict, who have been in jail since their arrest in 2002, has never succeeded in getting bail.
Their plea in the Supreme Court that the appeals filed by them against their conviction should be heard by the Allahabad High Court had also been rejected.
Bureau Report
