NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted three months furlough to Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehalwan in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case.
A bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and K Vinod Chandran noted that Yadav has undergone 20 years of uninterrupted incarceration without remission.
The top court directed that Yadav be produced before the trial court within seven days and appropriate conditions be imposed on him by the trial court before grant of furlough.
Furlough is a temporary release from prison, not a suspension or remission of the entire sentence, and is typically granted to long-term inmates who have served a portion of their sentence.
Yadav's plea challenged a November 2024 order of the Delhi High Court, which dismissed his petition for releasing him on furlough for three weeks.
On October 3, 2016, the Supreme Court awarded a 25-year jail term without the benefit of remission to Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav for their role in the sensational kidnapping and killing of Katara.
Co-convict Sukhdev Yadav was given a 20-year jail term in the case.
They were convicted and sentenced for kidnapping Katara from a marriage party on the intervening night of February 16 and 17, 2002 and then killing him for his alleged affair with Vikas' sister Bharti Yadav.
Bharti is the daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav.
The trial court observed Katara was murdered as Vishal and Vikas Yadav did not approve of his affair with Bharti as they were from different castes.