New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted a furlough of three months to Sukhdev Yadav, alias Pehalwan, a convict in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case.
A bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and K Vinod Chandran noted that Yadav has undergone 20 years of uninterrupted incarceration without remission and granted him furlough.
The top court ordered that Yadav be produced before the trial court within seven days, which will put conditions of furlough. It also ordered that the safety of Neelam Katara be considered when releasing Yadav on furlough.
Yadav sought a furlough till the time the apex court decides his appeal seeking remission, as he has completed 20 years of sentence.
He had sought remission after serving a 20-year jail term without remission in the case.
The apex court, in its verdict delivered on February 6, 2015, sentenced Yadav to “life imprisonment, which shall be 20 years of actual imprisonment without consideration of remission”.
Sukhdev Yadav, Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal were convicted and sentenced for their role in the kidnapping and killing of Katara.
They kidnapped Katara from a marriage party on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002 and then killed him for his alleged affair with Vikas’ sister Bharti Yadav.
Bharti was the daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav. (ANI)
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