Court orders release of Bharti's passport

New Delhi, Dec 12 (UNI) Complying with the direction of the Delhi High Court, a Delhi Court today ordered the release of the passport of Ms Bharti Yadav, the prime witness in the Nitish Katara murder case.

Additional Sessions Judge K C Lohia directed for the release of the passport to her Counsel Puneet Mittal, who produced the High Court order before the court.

The High Court had directed the Patiala House courts-in-charge here to hand over the passport to Ms Bharti, who had come from Britain to depose in the case.

Justice A K Sikri passed the order on an application by Ms Bharti seeking directions to the trial court judge to hand over her passport and visa to her lawyer so that she could go back to London to complete her studies.

Ms Bharti had come from London last month to depose in the case.

Before recording of her evidence, she had submitted her passport and visa to the trial court as per the High Court directions.

Earlier, the trial court had directed her to appear in person and collect her documents.

However, she moved the High Court informing it that she had authorised her lawyer to collect her documents from the trial court as she did not want to collect the same in person to avoid unnecessary media attention.

Ms Bharti's brother Vikas and cousin Vishal, were facing trial for allegedly kidnapping and killing Nitish, son of a former bureaucrat.

UNI XC/PAT AB GC1941