NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said that Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal, the convicts in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case, will be in jail for 25 years.
The SC’s decision gave the Yadav cousins a break by allowing their sentences to run concurrently rather than consecutively. That means instead of spending 30 years in jail, they will be behind bars for just 25 years.
The SC sentenced a third convict in the case, Sukhdev Pehalwan, to 20 years in prison.
The Delhi high court earlier sentenced the convicts to 25 years in jail, plus five years for destruction of evidence, with both sentences to run consecutively.
The Supreme Court bench on Monday pronounced the verdict on appeals filed by Vikas and Vishal against the Delhi high court order, which had enhanced their respective life terms — handed down by a lower court — to 25 years in jail without remission and an additional five years for destruction of evidence.
