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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (July 29) ordered the release of Nitish Katara murder case convict Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehalwan, noting he has completed his 20 years of sentence in the case in March this year.
A bench comprising Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice KV Viswanathan, while ordering the release of Pehalwan, expressed surprise the decision of the Sentence Review Board (SRB) rejecting Pehalwan’s remission plea citing his conduct.
“How can the Sentence Review Board (SRB) sit over an order of the judicial authority. If this is the approach, then every convict will die in jail. Is this the conduct of an executive?", the bench said and added that Pehalwan should have released from Jail after the completion of his 20-year sentence.
Pehalwan moved the apex court challenging a Delhi High Court order dismissing his plea seeking his releasing on furlough for three weeks.
The top court on June 25 granted Pehalwan three-month furlough, noting that he has served 20-year uninterrupted jail term without remission.
Pehalwan said in his plea that he had served the entire sentence of 20 years and the High court, while 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.
The top court, earlier while hearing Pehalwan’s plea, pulled up the State and had issued a contempt notice to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) 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 apex court earlier observed.
The top court on October 3, 2016 gave 25-year imprisonment without remission to Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav for their role in the Nitish Katara murder case and Pehalwan, a co-convict, was awarded a 20-year jail term for his role in the case.
They were convicted and sentenced for kidnapping business executive 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.
