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.