No one above law: Delhi HC on Katara murder convicts' hospital visits

New Delhi, Feb 6 (IANS) "No one is above law," the Delhi High Court Friday said while observing that Nitish Katara murder convicts' hospital visits and admissions were "unwarranted" as they have manipulated the system deliberately.

The court Friday sentenced Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav to 30 years in prison for the murder of Katara, a friend of Vikas Yadav's sister.

A special bench of Justice Gita Mittal and Justice J.R. Midha observed that Yadav cousins' hospital visits were "unwarranted" and they utilised the shield of the hospital visits and stays in connivance with jail authorities as well as doctors.

The court said: "They manipulated the systems deliberately and knowingly with impunity without any respect for law or authority, sure and confident that their unholy and illegal acts would go undetected and they could avoid undergoing the imprisonment awarded to them, in any sense."

Expressing concern, the court said it was "greatly saddened by the situation manifested from the fact that persons convicted for heinous offences, undergoing life imprisonments are able to manipulate not only jail authorities but medical professionals in the most premier institutions enabling utilisation of a shield of non-existent medical ailments for 'outings' from jail".

"Those placed in positions of authority, be it jail administration or be it medical experts, must realise that no one is above the law, that each person must be treated equally. That imprisonment, especially after conviction, brooks no such liberties," the court said in its 594-page judgment.

The court said hospitals need to take special care in this regard where treatment of prisoners is concerned inasmuch as the expenses are borne by the public exchequer.

It asked the central and state governments to conduct an inquiry into the convicts' visits to hospitals.

According to the prosecution, Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav 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.