A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar was urged by senior advocate Aparajita Singh and advocate Durga Dutt, appearing for the complainant Nilam Katara- mother of the deceased, that the accused’s writ petition ought to be dismissed.
The petition sought directions that the benefits of remission is part of the right to personal liberty as protected under Article 21 of Constitution. It contended that no criminal court can pass a sentence fixing the minimum sentence of 25 years in a case of life imprisonment to get eligible for grant of remission.
In the sensational case, Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav, among others, were convicted and sentenced to 25 years of actual imprisonment without consideration of remission for kidnapping Katara from a marriage party in February 2002 and then killing him for his alleged affair with Vikas’ sister Bharti Yadav.
Another co-convict, Sukhdev Pehalwan, was handed a 20-year jail term.
Katara was murdered as Vishal and Vikas Yadav did not approve of his affair with Bharti because they belonged to different castes, the lower court had observed in its verdict.
–Ajit Weekly News
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