The Delhi High Court issued notice to city police on Nitish Katara murder case convict Vikas Yadav seeking interim bail for the marriage of his sister. A division bench headed by Justice Anil Kumar also issued notice to the Tihar Jail authorities and asked for details about the number of days Vikas Yadav has spent in jail by October 20. Appearing for Vikas,his counsel Sumit Verma submitted that his client's presence was required at home as elder brother of Bharati Yadav for the wedding on November 1. Citing the cases of Shivani Bhatnagar murder case,in which prime accused R K Sharma was granted bail for his daughter's marriage,Verma said in other sensitive murder cases the convicts have been granted bail to attend family functions and his client is also entitled to bail for his sister's marriage. Vikas,son of controversial Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav,was convicted along with his cousin Vishal Yadav for kidnapping and murdering Katara,a close friend of Bharati. Vikas and Vishal were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court on May 28 last year. The duo had kidnapped and killed Katara,son of an IAS officer,on the intervening night of February 17-18,2002 after abducting him from a marriage party in Ghaziabad as they were against the relationship between the victim and Bharati. The trial of the case was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court after Katara's mother Neelam had expressed apprehension that she will not get a fair trial in Uttar Pradesh. Bharati,who had left for United Kingdom after the incident and had been avoiding to depose as witness in the case finally turned up in 2006 to record her statement after the trial court had issued non-bailable warrant against her. The convict,who have been in jail since their arrest in 2002,has never succeeded in getting bail. Their plea in the Supreme Court that the appeals filed by them against their conviction should be heard by the Allahabad High Court had also been rejected.
