Nitish Katara murder case: Delhi HC verdict on punishment Friday

New Delhi, Feb 5 (IANS) The Delhi High Court will Friday deliver its judgment on the punishment to be awarded to three convicts in Nitish Katara murder case.

A special bench of Justice Gita Mittal and Justice J.R. Midha will decide whether to uphold the earlier sentence of a life term for Vikas Yadav, brother of Katara's friend Bharti, Vishal Yadav, Bharti's cousin, and contract killer Sukhdev Pehalwan or give the death penalty.

The bench April 2, 2014 had upheld the 2008 trial court judgment that sentenced the three to life imprisonment and termed the case as of "honour killing".

Since April, the court has been hearing the appeals of police and Katara's mother Neelam Katara who sought death sentence to the three convicts, who are serving life terms in the Tihar Central Jail here.

According to the prosecution, Vikas and Vishal killed Katara on the night of Feb 17, 2002, after abducting him from a marriage party in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, as they were opposed to his friendship with their sister Bharti.

Vikas and Bharti are children of former parliamentarian D.P. Yadav.

Vishal was convicted in 2008 along with Vikas for kidnapping and murdering Katara, son of an Indian Administrative Service officer.

The Yadavs had sought a re-trial of the case, saying the trial was not conducted in accordance with law.

They had challenged the trial court order convicting them and sentencing them to life imprisonment. Katara's mother and police had also challenged the trial court's order and sought death penalty for three convicts.