Bharti Yadav's bid to save her brothers from conviction by turning hostile proved futile as the Delhi High Court refused to differ with the findings of the trial court, which discarded her testimony that she was not in love with the victim.
She herself was also the victim of "honour killing" like her lover, noted the High Court and said her testimony five years after the crime in the trial court was "under pressure".
A bench of justices Gita Mittal and J R Midha concurred with the findings of trial court that Bharti was in a close relationship with the victim which was supported by the call details of her mobile phone on the day of incident.
"The evidence of the cell phone records in the instant case therefore cannot be doubted," the bench said referring to the call details gathered from Bharti's mobile phone on the intervening night of February 16 and 17, 2002, the day Nitish went missing.
"The electronic phone records coupled with the testimony of the representatives of the phone companies and service providers as well as that of the family members and friends of Nitish Katara belie the stand taken by Bharti and (her sister) Bhawna Yadav...," the court said.
Bharti in a deposition before the trial court had turned hostile and claimed that she was not in love with the victim and so there was no question of her family disliking Nitish.
She had denied that her friendship with Nitish developed into love or that there was any marriage proposal although she liked him. She denied gifting any wrist watch to Nitish.
