Nitish Katara murder case: SC grants interim bail to convict Vikas Yadav to meet ailing mother

The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim bail to convict Vikas Yadav — serving a 25-year jail term in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case — till May 8 to meet his ailing mother.

A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan directed Yadav's mother to be examined by a medical board of AIIMS doctors.

The Bench, however, directed Vikas Yadav to remain confined to his Ghaziabad house and not get in touch with witnesses, including the victim's mother Neelam Katara and asked him to furnish a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh with a surety in the like amount.

Son of Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav — Vikas Yadav was sentenced by the top court on October 3, 2016 without any benefit of remission. His cousin Vishal Yadav was also awarded the same sentence for the kidnapping and murder of business executive Katara who allegedly had an affair with Bharti Yadav, sister of Vikas. Another co-convict Sukhdev Pehalwan was given a 20-year jail term without any remission benefit.

The Delhi prisons administration had last year rejected Yadav's remission request after his conduct was found to be unsatisfactory.

Noting that the State has to be fair, the Supreme Court had on April 15 pulled up the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi over delay in constituting a medical board to examine the condition of Vikas Yadav’s mother.