Court frames charges in Katara murder case

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday framed charges against Rajya Sabha MP D P Yadav''s son and nephew Vikas and Vishal Yadav in business executive Nitish Katara murder case.
"I find prima facie sufficient evidence to frame charges against both the accused persons under Sections 302 (murder), 364 (kidnapping) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of IPC read with Section 34 (common intention to commit a crime)," Additional Sessions Judge S N Dhingra said reading out the charges to them.
The accused pleaded not guilty and preferred trial and the court fixed January 20 for hearing the case on a day-to-day basis.
Directing the prosecution to submit the schedule for examining the witnesses within a week, the court said that it would be the responsibility of Uttar Pradesh police to serve summons on witnesses they intended to examine.
The case was transferred to Delhi from a court in Ghaziabad following a Supreme Court direction as Nitish''s mother Neelam Katara had pleaded the apex court that she did not expect fair trial at Ghaziabad alleging that the accused were threatening the witnesses.
The chargesheet filed by police before a Ghaziabad court in April accused Vikas and Vishal Yadav of kidnapping Nitish from a marriage party and murdering him in February this year as they did not like his friendship with their sister.
This is the second murder case against Vikas as he is also facing trial in the model Jessica Lal murder case for allegedly helping his friend Manu Sharma.