Court reserves order in Nitish Katara murder case till July 22

New Delhi, July 19 (UNI) A city court today reserved till July 22 its order on declaring prime witness Bharti Yadav in the Nitish Katara murder case a Proclaimed Offender (PO).

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Ravinder Kaur reserved the order for July 22.

Chief public prosecutor B S Joon argued that, ''law itself is very clear in this aspect. The court could resort to any means within the territory of law to bring Bharti back to depose in the court in this case.'' Joon also argued that, ''the purpose is only to secure her presence in the court and to examine her as a witness.'' Chief public prosecutor B S Joon said,''On July 5, we also sought the help of the Interpol to trace out the address of Bharti as neither D P Yadav nor Bharti was co-operating. The reply from the Interpol is awaited.'' Bharti's father D P Yadav had on July 15 submitted in the court that his daughter was in the UK. The court had earlier directed him to disclose the present address of Bharti but he refused to furnish it saying he did not remember.

Three Non-Bailable warrants (NBWs), eight summonses and several Bailable Warrants (BWs) have been issued against Bharti till May 22, 2006. But Bharti did not come to depose in the court citing some plea or the other.

Vikas and Vishal Yadav, brother and cousin of Bharti respectively, are facing trial in the case for allegedly kidnapping and murdering Katara on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002, from Ghaziabad where he had gone to attend a marriage.

Bharti allegedly was in relationship with Nitish, son of a senior Indian Administartive Service (IAS) officer.

Vikas is believed to have plaaned the crime after he came to know about Bharti's relationship with Nitish which he did not approve of.

Vikas and Vishal have ben booked under Sections 302 (Murder), 364 (Kidnapping) and 201 (Destruction of Evidence) and 34 (Common Intention to Commit a Crime) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

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