NEW DELHI: Bhawna Yadav, sister of Bharti Yadav, will appear before a court here on Thursday to record her statement as a prosecution witness in the Nitish Katara murder case.

The prosecution will examine her to verify whether Ms. Bharti, a key prosecution witness, received calls from Neelam Katara, mother of Nitish Katara, and his friends on her sister's mobile phone on February 16, 2002, when Nitish went missing, and the following day.

Vikas Yadav, brother of the two sisters, and Vishal Yadav, their cousin, are facing prosecution in the case. The police alleged that Ms. Bharti's brother and cousin were opposed to her love affair with Nitish.

Ms. Bhawna was earlier scheduled to record her evidence on February 1 but the court advanced it on a request by counsel, who said his client Vikas Yadav wanted the witness examined before January 19 as the Delhi High Court was hearing his bail application that day.

Recording her evidence last November, Ms. Bharti categorically denied having used the cell number 9810038469, issued to Ms. Bhawna, or received any call from Neelam Katara and Nitish Katara's friends. The number was issued to her at the residential address at R-4/32, Raj Nagar, in Ghaziabad of D.P. Yadav, father of Ms. Bharti and Ms. Bhawna. The prosecution said it was essential to examine Ms. Bhawna to ascertain who used the cellphone bearing the number at the relevant time in the view of Ms. Bharti's denial.

The court also summoned officials of the Kasturba Gandhi Marg branch of HDFC Bank to allow the prosecution to find out whether a cheque for Rs. 10,000, drawn on HDFC Bank, that Ms. Bharti issued in favour of the Connaught Place branch of BNP Paribas Bank at the time of her opening an account there in September 2001 belonged to the deceased.

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