New Delhi: The Nitish Katara murder case
convict Vishal Yadav, serving life term along with his cousin
Vikas, was on Friday asked by the Delhi High Court to return the money spent by the government on his security during his
numerous visits to various hospitals from Tihar jail.
A bench of justices Gita Mittal and V K Shali asked
Vishal`s counsel to seek instruction from his client on the
issue and inform it by March 23, the next date of hearing.
"It was all tax payers` money the government has spent for
your security during your visits to hospitals including Batra
Hospital. Let us see some bonafide," the bench said.
The court also told the counsel that it would evaluate the
total amount spent on him after perusing the documents
submitted by the jail authorities.
Referring to the Tihar jail report, Justice Mittal said
it is evident that more than Rs 16 lakh was spent on the
number of security personnel who had accompanied the convict.
The bench also asked the jail authority to place before
it the guidelines framed for the prisoners, who were sent to
various hospitals other than Deen Dayal Upadhyay and LNJP
hospitals for their treatment.
The DDU and LNJP hospitals were also directed by the bench
to file an affidavit making it clear whether they review the
health condition of the Tihar patients before referring them
to any other hospitals.
With regard to convict Vikas Yadav, the court sought an
explanation from All India Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS) as to why the convict had been shifted from `B` class
facility to `A` class during his treatment in October 2011.
The bench also asked AIIMS to mention if such facility
was earlier given to any other prisoner.
Coming down heavily on jail authorities for allowing
Vishal to visit Batra Hospital under the garb of a previous
order of the high court, the court earlier had said the
convict`s numerous visits to hospital was unwarranted.
According to Tihar jail, Vishal had remained hospitalised
at Batra hospital for nearly three-and-half months for his TB
treatment.
The court passed the order on victim Nitish Katara`s
mother Neelam Katara`s petition, allegeing on the basis of
information received from Tihar Jail under the RTI Act that
Vishal had visited hospitals 87 times, misusing his financial
and political clout.
In 2008, a trial court has awarded life imprisonment to
Vikas and Vishal and also similar punishment to third accused
Sukhdev Pehalwan who was tried separately as he had absconded during the trial of Yadavs in the case.
While the convicts had moved the high court seeking
reversal of the trial court`s findings, police and Neelam
Katara have filed appeals for award of death penalty, saying
that the offence was of the "rarest of rare" category.
Nitish Katara, a business executive, was abducted from a
marriage party at Ghaziabad on the intervening night of
February 16-17, 2002 and was later killed for his alleged
intimacy with Vikas` sister Bharti.
PTI
