SC declines plea seeking death for Katara killers

The Supreme Court on Friday declined a plea to award death sentence to Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav’s son Vikas and his nephew Vishal in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case, saying it was neither a honour killing nor committed in a heinous manner.

A bench of Justices J S Khehar and R Banumathi said the case could not be described as the rarest of rare, warranting death penalty and even held that the convicts could not be incarcerated for the entire life.

“It (murder) may be planned but it certainly is not heinous. And every murder is planned. Tell us which murder is not planned? If it is not planned, strictly speaking, it will not be murder. If it is in heat of the moment, it will come under exception clause of Section 300 (murder),” the bench told senior advocate Harish Salve.

Salve, appearing for victim’s mother Nilam Katara, contended that Nitish was just 25-year-old when the incident happened.