Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Justice for Priyadarshini, Jessica and now Nitish

Mrs. Neelam Katara with her son Nitin at the Patiala Court on Wednesday.
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New Delhi: The guilty verdict against Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav, the cousins accused of murdering young business executive Nitish Katara, is the third famous crime case involving powerful suspects and a spirited public campaign for justice.
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A nationwide public campaign, backed up by continuous media focus, is believed to have led convictions in the Priyadarshini Matto and the Jessica Lal murder cases.
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Lawyer Santosh Kumar Singh, son of a retired IPS officer, has been sentenced to death for raping and killing law student Priyadarshini in 1996.
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Priyadarshini’s father Chaman Lal Mattoo, an elderly and ailing man, fought for six years before finally ensuring that her killer was punished.
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The Delhi High Court, while convicting Singh in October 2006, severely criticized the lower court which acquitted him and the investigating authorities in the case.
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Then in December 2006, Manu Sharma, son of former Haryana minister Venod Sharma, was found guilty of murdering model Jessica Lall.
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Jessica was shot dead in the early hours of April 30, 1999, at a restaurant in Delhi when she refused to serve Sharma liquor.
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A trial court had acquitted all the nine accused in the case but the case was reopened when police challenged the acquittal after a public outcry.
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This case too was marked by a long-drawn trial, media focus and the Lall family’s refusal to drop their fight.
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'Now no other son will meet Nitish's fate'
The Times of India
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NEW DELHI: Neelam Katara, mother of the murder victim Nitish Katara, on Wednesday termed the trial court judgement convicting prime accused Vikas and his cousin Vishal Yadav in the case as a "milestone" and hoped that it would ensure that no other person would meet the fate of her son.
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"This is a milestone case and I believe this (judgement) would ensure no other son of any mother would meet such a fate (as that of her son)," she said, in her reaction to the court's verdict.
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"My faith in the judiciary have been vindicated and strengthened with the verdict. Now I am feeling a sense of relief and am grateful to God," she told reporters outside the courtroom in the Patiala House courts here.
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The victim's younger brother Nitin Katara attributed the judgement to her mother's relentless fight for justice.
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"I believe he (Nitish) died for love. He died for freedom of expression, he died for that school of thought...in our generation that we are allowed to make a choice and stand by it and that belief has been vindicated today by this decision."
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On being asked why she stayed away from the trial for so long, he said my mother was the big force fighting for justice and I did not want to be a distraction for her. "My mother is my God," he said.
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However, G K Bharti, counsel for Yadavs, said "it seems that the trial court has given this verdict under some pressures from some quarter."
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On the contrary, Special Public Prosecutor B S Joon said that in view of the evidence, he had firm belief since the very beginning that it was accused who had committed the offence.
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"In my mind, it was always there that Vikas and Vishal have committed the gruesome crime and they cannot evade the conviction for their act, and you all saw and heard it today what the court had delivered," he said, adding that justice has finally been delivered.

Katara Case : Verdict likely today

NEW DELHI: The trial court hearing the six-year-old Nitish Katara case is likely to pronounce its verdict on Wednesday, even though prime accused Vikas Yadav might be hoping that Delhi High Court will restrain the lower court from going ahead with the verdict. ( Watch ) Tuesday saw swift developments in the case, which has been marked by a flurry of applications being moved by defence lawyers representing Vikas, son of UP politician D P Yadav, and his cousin Vishal Yadav. Applications were filed at every stage of the hearing, even after court had wrapped up the trial. As additional sessions judge Ravinder Kaur dismissed Vikas' plea to recall key witness Ajay Katara for examination and informed both parties Kaur will give the verdict on Wednesday, his lawyers rushed to HC in appeal and sought a stay on pronouncement until Ajay is re-examined. However, HC will hear the application on Wednesday itself. Vikas' decision to move HC at this stage and press for Ajay Katara's summoning comes in the wake of a CD which surfaced last week, featuring an alleged sting operation conducted on Ajay, who was, according to the prosecution, a witness to "last seen evidence." Ajay had testified during the trial that, on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002, when Nitish was murdered, he saw him with Vikas and Vishal in a Tata Safari in Ghaziabad. The prosecution says this makes the chain of circumstantial evidence — on which the case is based — complete. The defence, on the other hand, has attacked Ajay as a witness planted by police and tried its best to discredit him. This only goes to highlight the importance of his evidence in court, which will have a bearing on the verdict on Wednesday. Kaur dismissed Vikas' plea on Tuesday and said she found "no justifiable reason to allow the present application, particularly when an application by the accused under Section 311 (court's power to summon witness) of the CrPC to the similar effect has already been disposed of on May 24." The court took serious note of the fresh application and added, "It is the duty of the court to see that neither the prosecution nor the defence is allowed to misuse the process of the court. Since the trial is already over and the judgment is to be pronounced, this is no stage to summon the witnesses, particularly (in view of the) disposal of an earlier similar application." Apart from Ajay, the other testimony which will decide the fate of the case is that of Vikas' sister Bharti Yadav, a central figure in the entire case and "an important witness" according to Delhi HC, which reversed the prosecution's decision to drop her as its witness in the course of the trial. Bharti's proximity to Nitish was disliked by her brothers who therefore murdered him, claimed the prosecution, while imputing motive to the crime. After repeated summons failed and court threatened to declare her a PO, Bharti — who left for UK within days of the murder— returned to India in 2006. It will be interesting to see how the trial court deals with her testimony. Although she admitted to being close to Nitish, she has given a clean chit to her brothers. While she stood by all documentary evidence tabled by the prosecution, for example, the Valentine's Day album, greeting cards, snaps and letters to Nitish, Bharti maintained her family were unaware of her friendship with Nitish. There was, therefore, no question of them disliking him and she had no plans to tie the knot with Nitish. Vikas, who has been convicted for his role in the Jessica Lal murder and is undergoing a prison sentence has been in jail since his arrest in this case and his several bail pleas have been rejected even by Supreme Court. Vishal has been on bail since 2005.