Katara case: Mother moves HC against Tihar's decision

Neelam Katara on Wednesday moved the Delhi high court against the Tihar Jail authority's decision to shift convicts Vikas and Vishal Yadav, undergoing life sentence in New Delhi for killing her son Nitish in 2002, to a prison in Uttar Pradesh, their home state.

Filing the plea, Katara said that as per the media reports, the Delhi government has written a letter to home secretaries of other states for moving out convicts, who have been brought to Delhi, following an apex court's order, back to their home states.

"As per the media reports, home department of Delhi government has written a letter to home secretary of Haryana seeking transfer of 55 convicts in the teachers' recruitment scam to a jail in their state.

"A similar letter was also written to home secretary of UP for transfer of Vishal and Vikas" she said, adding that the reason cited by the authority for such recommendation was to cut the number of inmates in the ‘overcrowded’ jail.

She sought a direction from the Delhi high court, which is hearing final arguments of the appeals of Yadav duo, to call for the report from the Tihar Jail and also the office of the home secretary.

In the plea, she said that the Supreme Court had transferred the murder case from Ghaziabad to Delhi on the ground that father of Vikas Yadav -- DP Yadav is a very influential person and there is an immense threat to the witnesses in the case.

Besides appeals of Vikas and Vishal, the court is also hearing a petition moved by their hired killer Sukhdev Pehalwan. The police have also filed an appeal seeking enhancement of sentence of the convicts from life imprisonment to death penalty.