New Delhi, September 8 (HS): The Supreme Court has refused to extend interim bail granted to Vikas Yadav, who is serving a sentence in the Nitish Katara murder case. A bench headed by Justice M.M. Sundresh directed Yadav to approach the Delhi High Court for further relief.

The interim bail extended by the Delhi High Court is set to expire on September 9. During the hearing, Yadav’s counsel, S. Gurukrishna Kumar, requested an extension of four more days to allow time for filing a petition before the High Court. However, the Supreme Court declined the request and noted that it would not be appropriate to intervene in an interim order passed by the High Court.

Representing Katara’s family, advocate Vrinda Bhandari argued that Vikas Yadav had already been on interim bail since April 24, stressing that no convict should be given special preference. She further stated that Yadav should surrender and apply for furlough like any other prisoner. The Delhi High Court had earlier, on August 22, rejected the plea for further extension of Yadav’s interim bail.

In 2016, the Supreme Court had commuted Yadav’s punishment from life imprisonment to a 25-year fixed term. Vikas Yadav is the son of Uttar Pradesh strongman D.P. Yadav. On February 17, 2002, Nitish Katara was brutally murdered due to his romantic relationship with Bharti Yadav, Vikas’s sister—an alliance strongly opposed by the Yadav family.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar