Final arguments begin in Katara murder case | Latest News Delhi - Hindustan Times
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Final arguments begin in Katara murder case

PTI | By, New Delhi
Oct 06, 2007 05:50 PM IST

Playing down the worries raised by the defence, the court assures that justice will be done without being influenced by anyone or anybody.

The final arguments in the Nitish Katara murder case on Saturday began in a court in the Capital with the controversial "remarks" of a defence counsel that there may be an attempt to influence the Judge.

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"There is apprehension that some people might play mischief on you... Some persons might try to approach and influence you. There are some political interests in the case," defence counsel GK Bharti told Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur, who is trying the five-year-old case.

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Playing down the apprehensions raised by the defence counsel, the court, however, assured that justice would be done without being influenced with anything or by anybody in any manner whatsoever.



"I am not going to be influenced by anyone. This case is like any other case for me. I am afraid of God only, He is there to protect everyone," the judge observed, adding "I am not going to be prejudiced by way of threat or sms or anything else".



Chief Prosecution BS Joon, on the other hand, intervened to assure the court that the prosecution would only stick to its task.



Earlier, initiating the arguments, Joon attempted to establish that there was a definite motive for accused Vikas and Vishal Yadav to eliminate Katara, son of an ex IAS officer as he had developed intimacy with their sister Bharti Yadav, his classmate, between 1999-2000 at a management school.



The prosecutor, referring to various dates between the murder on the intervening night of Feb 16-17 and arrest of the accused Vikas and his cousin Vishal from Dabra in Madhya Pradesh on February 23, 2002, tried to reject defence plea that the accused had never absconded after the offence.



The prosecutor also pointed out that both the accused had filed an application before a Ghaziabad court on February 24, whereas police had invoked Section 302 pertaining to murder only on February 26, 2002.



"How could they know that they will be charged for offence of murder if they really were innocent. It was perhaps their guilty consciousness," Joon said.



The defence plea that the Tata Safari car allegedly used in the offence was with a motor service centre was also set aside by the prosecutor.



By referring to the dates between the arrest of accused and recovery of car from a factory in Panipat on March 11, Joon also showed how the accused had allegedly dodged the police by taking them to various places till the actual recovery.



The court, earlier, had concluded recording of defence evidence in the case on September 28 with the recording of as many as 25 witnesses' statements.



Vikas, son of controversial Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav are accused of killing Nitish Katara, an assistant manager of a private firm, on February 16-17, 2002 after abducting him from a marriage party of their common friend in Ghaziabad.



They were allegedly enraged over his growing proximity with their sister Bharti Yadav.

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