The Supreme Court has granted a three-month furlough to Sukhdev Pehalwan, a convict in the Nitish Katara murder case.
During a hearing on Wednesday, Vrinda Bhardwaj, counsel for Katara's mother Neelam Katara, opposed any relief, citing an incident in February, when a Delhi High Court judge had recused herself and said Pehalwan had tried to influence her.
Pehalwan was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life by a trial court for the murder of Nitish Katara - a heinous dishonour killing case which had shaken the nation. Vikas Yadav, his cousin Vishal Yadav, and Pehalwan had kidnapped Katara from a marriage event in February 2002 and then killed him for his alleged affair with Vikas' sister Bharti.
In 2015, the Delhi High Court had enhanced Pehalwan's sentence to life imprisonment without remission for 20 years.
Pehalwan's case in the Supreme Court is that he is now entitled to remission. He has also sought his release.
The bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and K Vinod Chandran noted that Pehalwan has completed 20 years of imprisonment without remission on March 9 this year.
The court allowed his application seeking furlough till his petition seeking release is pending. It, however, also ordered the Delhi government to provide police security to Neelam Katara and other witnesses in the case.
On June 17, the Supreme Court had also extended Vikas Yadav's bail, granted so he could attend to his unwell mother, by two weeks. Vikas, the son of former Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister DP Yadav, is serving a 25-year jail term in the Katara murder case.
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