The Hindu : New Delhi News : “Our children victims of political vendetta”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 31, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

“Our children victims of political vendetta”

Staff Reporter

“FRAMED”: D.P. Yadav and his wife, parents of the prime accused in the Nitish Katara murder case, Vikas Yadav, at the Patiala House courts in New Delhi on Friday.

NEW DELHI: Waiting with bated breath to know their fate, Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav had kept their composure all along while the defence and the prosecution were arguing in court on Friday over the point of sentence in the six-year-old Nitish Katara murder case. But when Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur handed out life imprisonment to them, a sense of relief was palpable on their faces.

Soon after the sentence was pronounced in the afternoon, the two accused even managed a smile as they touched the feet of their mothers in the courtroom before being whisked away by the police. The charge of murder, under which both of them had been convicted, could have attracted either death penalty or life imprisonment.

The prosecution too had argued at length pressing for death penalty. But the court agreed with the defence contention that the case did not fall under the rarest of the rare category.

However, speaking to mediapersons outside the court, Vikas Yadav’s father, Uttar Pradesh political strongman D. P. Yadav, said his son and nephew were innocent and that they had been framed because his political rivals wanted to destroy his political career. “We will go to the High Court against this judgement. Our children are victims of a political vendetta,” he said.

Neelam Katara, mother of victim Nitish, maintained that she was satisfied with the sentence. On Wednesday, when the court had convicted the two accused, she had thanked God and also the media for its support in the six-year long trial.

Defence counsel G.K. Bharti, however, blamed the media squarely for their “lopsided reporting” which led to the conviction of his clients. “It [getting a life sentence, instead of death sentence] is not a matter of achievement for us. We will fight for justice. Had the media not portrayed Vikas and Vishal as guilty right since the beginning, the fate of the case would have been different,” he said.

Following the conviction of his clients on Wednesday, Mr. Bharti had also said that it looked as if the court was under some pressure from some quarter.

While the defence would like to approach the High Court at the earliest, Mr. Bharti also said it would take some time as the judgment ran into more than 1,000 pages. “Going through the judgment and preparing the grounds for appeal would take some time,” he said.

Two days ago, Mr. Yadav had said he would consult his lawyers to ascertain whether the appeal could be filed in the Allahabad High Court or the Delhi High Court. He had contended that the Supreme Court had transferred only the trial from a Ghaziabad court to a Delhi court but had not said anything about the appeal.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi