Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 14 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Thursday suspended the sentence of Vishal Yadav, serving life imprisonment for killing Nitish Katara, and granted him interim bail till Jan 31 to enable him to attend his sister Sarika’s wedding.
A division bench of Justice Anil Kumar and Justice M.C. Garg suspended the sentence of Vishal Yadav till Jan 31 after he furnished a personal bond of Rs.1 lakh with two sureties of equal amounts.

“Though suspension of sentence during the pendency of appeal even for a short period is not the absolute right of the convict, however, the discretion to suspend can be exercised by the courts keeping in view the facts and circumstances and the nature of offence,” the court said while granting Vishal Yadav bail.

“The court has to exercise this discretion with utmost care and caution, balancing one’s right and liberty on one hand and the interest of the society on the other,” the court added.

The court directed Vishal Yadav to report to the local police station every alternate day till the suspension of sentence expires, and also directed him not to meet any witnesses - especially Ajay Katara, the lone eyewitness in the case.

The court had earlier allowed Vishal to attend his sister’s engagement ceremony Jan 3 on a five-hour parole.

Vishal and his cousin Vikas Yadav had killed Nitish Katara, son of an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, on the night of Feb 17, 2002, after abducting him from a marriage party in Ghaziabad as the two cousins were opposed to Nitish’s relationship with Bharti, Vikas’s sister.

In June last year, the two were sentenced to life imprisonment for Katara’s murder.