The Delhi High Court today set up a board of army doctors to examine medical records of the Nitish Katara murder case convicts Vikas and Vishal Yadav to examine how many of their numerous visits from Tihar Jail to various hospital were justified.
A bench of Justice Gita Mittal and Justice VK Shali directed the Medical Superintendent of Research and Referral (R&R) hospital of army to constitute a board of doctors and evaluate the medical records of both the convicts.
"An independent committee is required to evaluate the medical records of both Vikas and Vishal to ascertain which medical visits were warranted and which were not," the bench said and sought a report from the experts committee within four weeks.
Taking a serious view of Vishal's 87 visits to Batra Hospital and shifting of Vikas from 'B' class facility to 'A' class at AIIMS since their conviction in 2008, the high court had earlier, directed both the hospitals to place before it their medical records.
After perusing the documents, the court had also asked Vishal to return the money spent by the government on his security during his numerous visits to various hospitals from Tihar jail.
Meanwhile, referring to the AIIMS medical records, victim's mother Neelam Katara alleged Vikas was not in his room on October 26, 2011 night which was the day of 'Diwali'.
Her counsel PK Dey argued that Vikas had left the hospital at 8.30pm and came back next morning but the sister who was on duty was not informed either by the patient or the policemen who were with him.
Seeking a CBI probe into it, the lawyer said it is evident that Vikas had gone out of hospital in collusion with the personnel who had refused to reveal anything to the sister at AIIMS.
In 2008, a trial court has awarded life imprisonment to Vikas and Vishal and also similar punishment to third accused Sukhdev Pehalwan who had been tried separately as he had absconded during the trial of Yadavs in the case.
While the convicts have moved the high court seeking reversal of the trial court's findings, police and Neelam have filed appeals for award of death penalty, saying that the offence was of the "rarest of rare" category.
Nitish Katara, a business executive, was abducted from a marriage party at Ghaziabad on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002 and was later killed for his alleged intimacy with Vikas' sister Bharti.
