The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted three months of furlough to Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehalwan, one of the convicts in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case, acknowledging that he has undergone 20 years of uninterrupted incarceration without remission.
A bench comprising Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and K Vinod Chandran directed that Yadav be produced before the trial court within seven days, which will impose appropriate conditions for his temporary release. The court clarified that furlough is not a suspension or remission of sentence, but a temporary release granted to long-term prisoners who have served a significant portion of their jail term.
Yadav had moved the apex court challenging a November 2024 order of the Delhi High Court that denied him three weeks of furlough. The High Court had previously rejected his petition citing the gravity of the crime.
Yadav, along with Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav, was convicted in the sensational murder of Nitish Katara. The trio had kidnapped Katara from a marriage party on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002, and later killed him for his alleged romantic involvement with Bharti Yadav, daughter of former Uttar Pradesh politician D.P. Yadav.
In October 2016, the Supreme Court upheld the convictions and sentenced Vikas and Vishal Yadav to 25 years of imprisonment without the benefit of remission. Sukhdev Yadav was awarded a 20-year jail term. The trial court had observed that Katara’s murder was an “honour killing” rooted in caste-based prejudice, as the Yadav cousins disapproved of his relationship with Bharti.
The apex court’s order now paves the way for Sukhdev Yadav’s conditional release after two decades behind bars. The final terms of furlough will be determined by the trial court.
