Vishal Yadav, serving life term for the murder of Nitish Katara, has moved the Delhi High Court seeking parole citing risk of COVID-19 or TB infection due to overcrowding and poor sanitation in the prison.
Vishal claimed he suffered from tuberculosis (TB) earlier and if he gets infected again it could be fatal.
His plea stated that due to his prolonged TB infection, his immune system is weak and coupled with the poor sanitation facilities in prison, he would be vulnerable to coronavirus.
The matter came up for hearing before Justice V Kameswar Rao on Monday and he listed it for Wednesday so that the victim's mother, Neelam Katara, and a witness in the case - Ajay Katara - can be served with the petition, Delhi government additional standing counsel Rajesh Mahajan said.
Mahajan also said that the state opposed the parole plea of Vishal during the brief hearing held via video conferencing.
On October 3, 2016, the Supreme Court had awarded a 25-year jail term without any benefit of remission to Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal for their role in the sensational kidnapping and killing of Katara.
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Another co-convict Sukhdev Pehalwan was also handed down a 20-year jail term in the case.
Prior to this, the Delhi High Court, while upholding the life imprisonment awarded to Vikas and Vishal Yadav by the trial court, had specified a 30-year sentence, without any remission, to both of them. It had awarded a 25-year jail term to third convict Pehalwan.
All three were convicted and sentenced for kidnapping Nitish Katara from a marriage party on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002 and then killing him for his alleged affair with Bharti Yadav, the sister of Vikas.
Bharti is the daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav who is in jail in connection with another murder case.
Katara was murdered as Vishal and Vikas did not approve of his affair with Bharti because they belonged to different castes.
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