Katara murder case witness fired upon

Vikas Yadav, convicted in the Nitish Katara murder case, was sentenced to life along with his cousin Vikas

By: IANS Date: 2008-07-18

Ajay Katara, a witness in the Nitish Katara murder case in which parliamentarian D P Yadav's son Vikas and nephew Vishal were convicted, was fired upon by five people when he went to meet a friend.

Ajay Katara told the police that he was fired upon on Wednesday night in Ghaziabad's Patel Nagar.

The Sihani Gate police on the complaint of Ajay Katara have registered a case against five people under section 307 of the IPC.

Nitish Katara, son of a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was kidnapped and murdered after he attended a wedding in Ghaziabad on February 16, 2002. His half burnt body was found in a village in Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh.

Life sentence

Vikas Yadav, son of parliament member D P Yadav, and his cousin Vishal Yadav were convicted by the Patiala House court in New Delhi for Nitish Katara's murders and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Vikas and Vishal resented Nitish's relationship with their sister Bharati.

Ajay Katara's testimony was crucial in the conviction of the two cousins. Ajay said that on Wednesday night at 9 pm when he was going to meet his friend Pawan Agrawal at Patel Nagar III in Ghaziabad, five people opened fire at him.

Katara said this was fourth attack on his life."Earlier, they have attacked me in Meerut, and then they attacked me at Mohan Nagar.

They tried to poison me and now for the fourth time they have tried to eliminate me, but thank God I escaped," he said.

Source: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2008/jul/180708nation1.htm