Vikas Yadav, son of Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav, and his cousin Vishal Yadav were awarded life imprisonment in the sensational Nitish Katara murder case on Friday.
"I have awarded life sentence to both the convicts. This case does not deserve death penalty," Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur said.
The Judge rejected the prosecution plea for awarding death penalty to the convicts saying "This case does not fall in the rarest of rare category."
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1.6 lakh each on both the convicts under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.
The two were held guilty on Wednesday.
Vikas, 35, and Vishal, a year younger, had kidnapped Nitish on the night of February 16, 2002 from a marriage party in Ghaziabad and killed him. Vikas was opposed to his sister Bharti Yadav's intimacy with Katara.
Though the judgment was to have passed in the morning, but it was deferred till the evening.
"The judge thought it is fit to pronounce the judgment later. It was one of the most complicated cases I have ever handled. It involved everything: muscle power, money and politics. Neelam Katara, the mother of the victim, got threat calls. Her son Ajay, one of the key witnesses, too, was threatened. A complaint was also filed against me. All of us were given police protection," public prosecutor B S Joon told rediff.com.
The accused will file their appeal in the Delhi High Court after studying the judgment.
