Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 14 (IANS) A city court Wednesday issued notice to the prosecution after Vikas Yadav and Sukhdev Pehalwan, accused in the 2002 murder of Nitish Katara, sought a stay on the upcoming judgement following a sting operation that questioned the reliability of a key witness. Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur was Wednesday set to pronounce the date of judgement but postponed it till May 19, when the prosecution will submit its reply.

In the undercover operation carried out by Metro Now and published Monday, Ajay Katara, a key prosecution witness, purportedly admitted he was a planted witness.

Moving an application before the court, the two accused demanded that the content of the CD of the sting operation be brought on record.

The expose disclosed that Ajay was not present in Ghaziabad when the murder took place.

Moving an application under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), Yadav said the video recording was “very important for arriving at a just decision in the case”.

“Since the trial is divided into two parts and the judgement in one case is pronounced, it is going to affect the case of the applicant immediately and the applicant will not be getting justice,” he said in his application.

Nitish Katara, son of a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by Vikas Yadav, his cousin Vishal Yadav and Sukhdev on the night of Feb 16-17, 2002.

They resented Nitish’s alleged relationship with Vikas’s sister Bharati, according to the prosecution.

Nitish’s body was recovered from Khurja village in Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh.