New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday
rejected a plea of Vikas Yadav, serving life sentence along
with cousin Vishal for killing MBA graduate Nitish Katara in
Febraury 2002, for an early hearing of his appeal against the
trial court`s conviction and sentence order.
A bench of justices A K Sikri and M L Mehta dismissed the
application filed by Vikas through counsel Sumit Verma for
early hearing of his appeal, saying "it is not possible to
take up the appeal early as the bench has a heavy board."
The court, however, granted liberty to the convict to
seek relief after some time.
Verma submitted the matter was admitted in January this
year and it may take more than a year for the court to take up
the appeal.
"Till then, the accused is deprived of seeking any
relief in the case," the lawyer said.
In April this year, the high court had refused bail to
Vikas, son of controversial Uttar Pradesh politician D P
Yadav, but allowed him to attend in custoy his younger
brother`s marriage ceremony.
According to the prosecution, Vikas and Vishal had
kidnapped Katara, son of a bureaucrat, from a marriage party
in Ghaziabad on the night of February 16, 2002, and killed him
as they were against Katara`s intimacy with their sister
Bharati Yadav.
A city court, while convicting both the accused for the
murder, had awarded them life sentence in June 2008.
PTI
