The Hindu : New Delhi News : Bharti Yadav dropped as witness in Katara case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 31, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Bharti Yadav dropped as witness in Katara case

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 30. The prosecution in the Nitish Katara murder case today dropped its key witness, Bharti Yadav, daughter of the former Rajya Sabha Member, D.P. Yadav, saying that the British Government had refused to serve on her a non-bailable arrest warrant (NBW) issued by the trial court here for recording of her statement in the case.

Ms. Yadav is at present in London doing some professional course.

Following a submission by the Public Prosecutor in the case, K.K. Singh, to this effect, the Additional Sessions Judge, D.S. Pawanriya, allowed his plea for dropping Ms. Yadav as a prosecution witness.

The Union Home Ministry in its letter to the court also said that the British Government had refused to serve the warrant saying that Ms. Bharti had committed no crime either in India or Britian. Mr. Singh further informed the court that with the refusal by the British Government to serve the warrant, the prosecution had no other means to ensure the appearance of Ms. Bharti before the court.

Along with the dropping of Ms. Yadav, Mr. Singh also announced the closure of the recording of the prosecution witnesses.

Later, the court fixed April 21 as the date for recording of statements of the accused persons.

Counsel for Vikas Yadav, son of D.P. Yadav, and main accused in the case, K. Balagopal had earlier submitted that the Delhi High Court Rules do not permit issuance of a warrant to a persons who is not present in the country at the time of the start of the process.

The prosecution believed that examination of Ms. Bharti would help unravel the motive behind the killing of Nitish Katara, son of a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.

Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav, son and nephew of D.P. Yadav, are facing trial for allegedly kidnapping and later killing Nitish Katara in Ghaziabad in February 2002.

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