Supreme Court orders immediate release of Nitish Katara murder convicts who have served full sentences

The Supreme Court has ordered that all prisoners who have completed their full terms of imprisonment in the Nitish Katara murder case without remission must be released immediately, provided they are not wanted in any other case, as per reports.

The order, reportedly addressed to the home secretaries of all states and Union Territories, makes it clear that no convict should remain in prison beyond their sentence period. The court also directed that the order be forwarded to the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), which will ensure its implementation through District Legal Services Authorities nationwide.

The bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice KV Viswanathan issued the instructions while ordering the release of Sukhdev Pehalwan, a co-convict in the Katara case, who has already completed his entire sentence term.

Recently, the top court had also granted Pehalwan a three-month furlough. He, along with Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav, was convicted for the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Nitish Katara. The trial court had concluded that Katara was killed because of his alleged relationship with Bharti Yadav Vikas Yadav’s sister which the Yadav family opposed due to caste differences.

Vikas and Vishal Yadav are serving 25-year prison terms without the benefit of remission, while Pehalwan was sentenced to 20 years in jail.

In an order passed on April 24 this year, the top court, in a relief to Vikas Yadav, who has undergone actual incarceration for 23 years, enlarged him on temporary bail till May 8, 2025. “Only for the purposes of enabling the petitioner to meet his ailing mother and to ensure that appropriate treatment is provided to her for the time being, we grant temporary bail to the petitioner,” had ordered a Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan.

During the period of interim bail, Vikas Yadav was required to confine himself to his residence at Ghaziabad except visiting Yashoda Hospital after his mother was shifted back there from AIIMS Delhi.

The top court also had granted three months’ furlough to co-convict Sukhdev Yadav alias ‘Pehalwan’, who is serving a 20-year jail term.

Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav, among others, were convicted and sentenced to 25 years of actual imprisonment without consideration of remission for kidnapping Katara from a marriage party in February 2002 and then killing him for his alleged affair with Vikas’ sister Bharti Yadav.

Katara was murdered as Vishal and Vikas Yadav did not approve of his alleged relationship with Bharti because they belonged to different castes, the trial court had observed in its verdict.

(With inputs from syndicated feed)