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Orders reserved on plea by Bharti Yadav

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI DEC. 10. A Delhi court today reserved its orders on an application by Bharti Yadav, daughter of the Rajya Sabha MP, D.P. Yadav, seeking permission of the court for recording of her evidence through video-conferencing in the Nitish Katara murder case.

Reserving the order, the Additional Sessions Judge, J.M. Malik, conducting trial of the case, said that he would give his opinion on the plea on December 23.

Bharti, one of the key prosecution witnesses in the case, is at present doing some professional course in London. She has expressed her inability to come back and depose before the court in person saying that she was busy with her studies there.

However, the Special Public Prosecutor in the case, Y.K. Saxena, opposed her application submitting that it was a ploy on the part of the witness to delay trial of the case.

He submitted that there was no provision in law whereby the court could grant this relief to her as the same was meant for those witnesses who could not come to this country as well as was beyond the jurisdiction of this court.

Quoting a Supreme Court judgment to enlighten the court on the circumstances under which a court could allow the video-conferencing facility to a witness to record his or her statement, he submitted that Bharti was not covered under the verdict.

Countering his submission, counsel for Bharti, C.K. Sharma, submitted that the witness was ready to record her statement provided the court allowed her plea as she had genuine difficulties in coming to India.

Intervening in the argument, counsel for Vikas Yadav, main accused in the case, K.N. Balagopal, submitted that following the notification of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Union Government carried out amendments in the Indian Evidence Act, and Section 3 of the amended law provided for taking electronic documents on record by a court as well, therefore, Bharti could be examined through video-conferencing.

When all the parties— defence, prosecution and the witness— were in favour of recording of the statement, he did not understand why the prosecution was opposing the plea of video-conferencing.

The Ghaziabad police allegation against Vikas Yadav is that he had kidnapped and later killed Nitish Katara, son of a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, because he was not amenable to her sister having an affair with the deceased.

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