New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (June 25) granted three-month furlough to Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehalwan who was awarded 20-year jail term in the Nitish Katara murder case.
A bench comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice K Vinod Chandran granted the relief to Pehalwan on his plea challenging a Delhi High Court order dismissing his plea seeking his releasing on furlough for three weeks.
The bench, while granting Pehalwan three-month furlough, noted that he has has served 20-year uninterrupted jail term without remission and directed that he be produced before the trial court within a period of seven days and appropriate conditions be imposed on him by the trial court before grant of furlough.
Yadav said in his plea that he had served the entire sentence of 20 years as per the order of the court and the High court by refusing him to grant furlough failed to appreciate that he is entitled to avail furlough as he satisfies the eligibility conditions as laid down in Rule 1223 of Delhi Prison Rules, 2018.
“The Hon’ble High Court all throughout has relied upon the judgement convicting the petitioner (Pehalwan) completely ignoring the fact that the offence in question dates back to the year 2002 and thereafter the petitioner has reformed himself which is reflected from his nominal roll that shows the jail conduct of the petitioner to be satisfactory, the condition necessary for being released on furlough,” Pehalwan said in his plea.
Pehalwan’s plea seeking furlough was opposed by the State.
The top court, earlier while hearing the matter pulled up the State and had issued a contempt notice to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi for its failure to comply with the directions of the court on taking decisions on remissions applications.
“We have seen in several cases concerning the grant of remission that either the assurances given on behalf of the Delhi Government are not complied with or the orders of this Court are not complied with,” the top court earlier observed.
The apex court on October 3, 2016 awarded 25-year jail term without remission to Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav for their role in the Nitish Katara murder case and co-convict Pehalwan was awarded a 20-year jail term for his role in the case.
They were convicted and sentenced for kidnapping Nitish Katara from a marriage party on the intervening night of February 16 and 17, 2002 and then killing him for his alleged affair with Bharti Yadav, sister of Vikas Yadav and daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav.
