New Delhi: Terming the Nitish Katara murder as a “honour killing”, the Delhi high court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of politician D.P. Yadav’s son Vikas and two others in the 2002 murder case.
Making scathing observations, the High Court said, “The prosecution case squarely brings the murder of Nitish Katara within the meaning of the expression honour killing. ‘Honour killing’ is a class of offence by itself, its motivation stemming from a deeply entrenched belief in the caste system, and it is completely unacceptable.”
Nitish, belonging to the Katara caste, was abducted and killed by Vikas, his cousin Vishal Yadav and co-convict Sukhdev Pehalwan as they did not approve of his affair with Bharti, daughter of D.P. Yadav, as they belonged to different castes, the court said.
The bench headed by Justice Gita Mittal, in a 1,193page verdict, dealt with 28 issues raised by the prosecution and defence lawyers during arguments, and said 23 incidents, relating to the case formed the “chain of circumstances” that was proved “beyond reasonable doubt”.
