HC denies Vikas Yadav plea to be present during furlough hearing

The Delhi High Court today rejected the plea of Vikas Yadav, in jail for life for the murder of Nitish Katara, to be present in person during the hearing of his plea seeking furlough.

Justice S P Garg denied the relief sought by Vikas saying there was no need for him to be present during hearing of his petition.

Furlough is a right of a prison inmate to have leave for a certain period of time in a year when he can come out of jail. It is counted towards the total period of his sentence. The prison authorities may deny the relief in certain cases.

 

The high court also agreed to hear on July 20 a separate plea moved by Katara's mother Neelam Katara alleging that Vishal Yadav, also serving jail term in the same case, and his brother Vivek lied to court in the plea for parole moved by Vishal.

Vishal in his plea for parole, which was rejected by the high court on April 20, had sought the relief to sell a property to arrange funds for his family. Vivek had signed on the petition on behalf of his brother.

Parole is also a temporary release from jail, but it is not a matter of right and is entirely subject to discretion of the prison authorities and the period outside does not count towards the duration of sentence.

Neelam Katara, in her application, has contended that the property which he wanted to sell had been sold during pendency of his appeal in the high court against his conviction in the case by the trial court.

She has sought action against Vishal and Vivek for perjury.

On August 29, 2017, the Supreme Court had dismissed Vishal and Vikas' pleas seeking review of its verdict sending them to prison for 25 years.

The apex court had also awarded a 20 year jail term to third convict Sukhdev Pehalwan in the case.

The top court had earlier dismissed the appeals against their conviction in the case of kidnapping of Katara from a marriage party on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002 before killing him for his alleged affair with Vikas Yadav's sister Bharti.

Bharti is the daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav who is in jail in connection with a murder case.

Katara was murdered as Vishal and Vikas Yadav did not approve of the victim's affair with Bharti because they belonged to different castes, the lower court had said in its verdict.