The Hindu : Vikas Yadav, cousin held

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 24, 2002

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Vikas Yadav, cousin held
By Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI, FEB. 23. The sensational Nitish Katara kidnapping-cum-murder mystery case which had the Delhi police on their toes all of this past week came to an abrupt end today with the arrest of the prime suspects, Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal, at Dabra in Gwalior. According to information received by the Delhi police this afternoon, Vikas and Vishal were rounded up during a routine security check at Dabra.

The Gwalior police said their patrol team recovered live cartridges from Vikas' suitcase. The bullets were of .38- bore, allotted only to police personnel. Given the fact that the cartridges were prohibited, the police team arrested Vikas and Vishal under the Arms Act.

Vikas - son of D.P. Yadav, Member of Parliament - had checked into a hotel in Gwalior under a fictitious name. Investigation of documents in his possession revealed his real identity.

According to the Gwalior police, Vikas - who is also an accused in the Jessica Lal murder case - pleaded innocence in the kidnapping and murder of Nitish Katara, son of a Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Shipping here. However, he disclosed that following the registration of the case against him he had been to Karnal in Haryana and then to Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh to contact his lawyer. Instead of surrendering before the court in Delhi on Wednesday, he went to Jhansi from where he reached Dabra. According to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Meerut Range), Arun Kumar, the Ghaziabad police have now sent a team to Gwalior to secure a transit remand for the accused.``I hope we will be able to produce the accused in the Ghaziabad court on January 25.''

The police feel that the accused might have consulted their lawyers before allowing themselves to be arrested. The results of the tests on samples, sent to a laboratory in Hyderabad for the DNA test on the body of the kidnap victim, are being awaited. Expected in a couple of weeks, they would establish the identity of the charred body, discovered near Khurja in Bulandshahar on February 17. The local police after waiting for two days had buried the ``unclaimed'' body but when the kidnapping case came to light the body was exhumed and brought to Delhi. Nitish's mother, Neelam, then confirmed that it was the body of her son.

Nitish had on February 16 gone to attend a marriage party in Ghaziabad where he had met Vikas' sister and the two are reported to have danced together. This reportedly was objected to by Vikas who called Nitish outside. That was the last time Nitish was seen alive.

It is learnt that Nitish and Vikas' sister became close friends while they were pursuing a management course at a Ghaziabad institute.

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