In a bid to rebut the prosecution's stand in the Nitish Katara murder case, a defence witness on Thurday told a court in New Delhi that accused Vikas Yadav had visited his place at Karnal in Haryana on the night of the fateful incident.
"Vikas reached my house around 3:00 am at Karnal on the intervening night of February 16-17 in 2002 (Katara was allegedly abducted and killed on the same day) for attending the shagun and ring ceremony of my son Manuj," Pawan Kumar Diwan, the fourth defence witness, told Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur.
He admitted his business relations with D P Yadav, a controversial Uttar Pradesh politician and father of accused Vikas, and submitted that he had sent an invitation to the Yadavs.
Diwan also submitted two photographs of the ring ceremony featuring accused Vikas in them.
A compact disc of the ceremony was also played inside the judge's chamber to substantiate the claim.
The court asked the counsel for Vikas to provide the photographs and the CD to the public prosecutor.
However, Public Prosecutor B S Joon claimed that the photographs and the CD were "forged and morphed" at the instance of accused as the witness, first time in last five years, came out with this kind of evidence. The court then fixed the next date of hearing for July 16.
