New Delhi: The fate of Vikas Yadav, his cousin Vishal and Sukhdev Pehalwan in the sensational 2002 Nitish Katara murder case were sealed on Monday with the Supreme Court upholding their conviction, saying “only criminals are crying for justice” in this country.
The Apex Court, which upheld the findings of the trial court and the Delhi High Court without issuing notices on the appeals of Vikas and Sukhdev, however, agreed to consider the limited aspect relating to enhancement of quantum of sentence of the three convicts by the High Court.
The High Court had termed the award of life term “simpliciter” to the convicts as inconsequential and enhanced the life term of Vikas and Vishal Yadav to 30 years imprisonment and 25 years incarceration to Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehelwan without the benefit of remission.
The Bench, comprising Justices J.S. Khehar and Adarsh Kumar Goel, heard senior lawyers, including U.R. Lalit, for almost two hours before saying that the High Court order “does not call for” any intervention.
The Bench rejected the submission of Sukhdev Pehlwan saying that “you are an honest servant of master (Yadavs), but your problem is that you helped them in the crime. ... “You will swim together or you will sink together.”
Accusing the convicts of wasting “judicial” time, the bench said they had been given enough “indulgence” by the High Court.
“This is a strange case that is why we are hearing you. Otherwise, we would have thrown it half-an-hour back,” the bench said. However, it issued notice to the Delhi government on the scope of punishment and sought the reply within six weeks.
