The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday granted a three-month furlough to Sukhdev Yadav, also known as Pehalwan, one of the convicts in the high-profile 2002 Nitish Katara murder case. A bench made up of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and K Vinod Chandran noted that Yadav was qualified for temporary release because he had been imprisoned for 20 years straight without receiving any kind of relief. The court granted a three-month furlough period in light of this.
Within seven days of the order, the court ordered that Yadav appear before the trial court. The trial court will be in charge of establishing the furlough's precise terms. The Supreme Court also underlined that sufficient precautions must be taken to guarantee the security and safety of Neelam Katara, the mother of the late Nitish Katara, while Yadav is being released. Yadav had petitioned for furlough pending the Supreme Court's decision on his appeal for a reduction in his sentence. Without receiving any remission benefits, he has already completed his entire 20-year prison sentence.
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Earlier, on February 6, 2015, the Supreme Court handed down a harsh life sentence for Yadav, emphasising that this would equate to "20 years of actual imprisonment without consideration of remission." Yadav was found guilty of Nitish Katara's kidnapping and murder, along with co-conspirators Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav. The three of them killed Katara after kidnapping him from a wedding event on the evening of February 16–17, 2002. The crime was motivated by Katara's purported love affair with Vikas Yadav's sister, Bharti Yadav.
DP Yadav, a well-known politician from Uttar Pradesh, is the father of Bharti Yadav. Because powerful political families were involved, the murder—which is commonly regarded as a "honour killing"—generated widespread indignation and close media attention.
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