Supreme Court grants Holi furlough to Nitish Katara murder convict Vikas Yadav

The Supreme Court on Friday granted furlough to Nitish Katara murder convict Vikas Yadav till March 7 to spend time with his family during Holi.

The order was passed by a Bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Vipul M Pancholi.

The Court noted that Yadav has undergone 23 years of incarceration without remission under a sentence requiring him to serve 25 years without remission.

"Furlough is now sought on the ground that he wishes to spend time during Holi. Without going into the merits, we permit the petitioner to be released on furlough till 7 March," the Court ordered.

The order was passed after the Court expressed disagreement with opposition by the complainant's counsel to the furlough plea.

"You want to hang him? Is it? What is the point of hearing you in this matter? After 23 years, you don’t want to let things go. We need to let things go. Our biggest problem in life is, we don’t let things go. What he has done, has been done," Justice Sundresh said.

The judge further observed that the grant of such relief can sometimes help in the reformation of the prisoner.

"In the Madras High Court, I granted furlough to everyone who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in a bomb blast case. After that period ended and they returned to prison, their behaviour had changed. Over time, they developed a sense of remorse," Justice Sundresh observed.

Vikas Yadav, along with his cousin Vishal Yadav, was convicted for the 2002 abduction and murder of 25-year-old business executive Nitish Katara, in a case that was characterised during trial as an honour killing arising out of Katara’s relationship with Vikas’s sister.

Katara was abducted and later found dead, his charred body recovered near Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

Both Vikas and Vishal Yadav, who are related to politician DP Yadav, were eventually sentenced to life imprisonment, with directions that they serve 25 years without remission.

On February 11, the Delhi High Court rejected Vikas Yadav's plea seeking three weeks’ furlough.

The High Court held that there was no arbitrariness or violation of constitutional rights in the decision of the Director General of Prisons to deny his release, noting the seriousness of the offence, the absence of required annual conduct reports and objections raised by the victim’s family.

Yadav challenged this ruling before the Supreme Court.

In today's hearing, Senior Advocate S Gurukrishna Kumar, appearing for Yadav, told the top court that his client had undergone 23 and a half years of imprisonment and had earlier been granted interim bail on multiple occasions, including for his mother’s medical treatment and for his marriage.

He added that during an earlier round of litigation, the Court had observed that Yadav may approach the authorities for furlough and challenge any adverse order before the High Court.

“I have one request. In the earlier round, when interim bail was granted, I got married on 5th September. Now Holi is approaching. I am seeking two to three days of interim furlough,” said Kumar.

The complainant's counsel, Advocate Vrinda Bhandari, countered that Yadav was not entitled to furlough under the Delhi Prison Rules.

Bhandari maintained that the rejection of furlough did not warrant interference. She further urged that if the Court was inclined to grant relief, it should direct that Yadav surrender before the Court reconvenes to avoid repeated requests for extension.

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