Court has stayed my arrest, says Katara murder witness

GHAZIABAD - The sole eyewitness in the Nitish Katara murder case Friday said the Allahabad High Court has stayed his arrest in cases filed against him by the father of the convict.

“The high court in its order dated March 9, 2010, stayed my arrest,” Ajay Katara said.

In his petition, Katara, who is no relation to Nitish Katara, pleaded that being the prime witness in Nitish Katara murder case due to which the accused Vikas and Vishal Yadav were convicted and sentenced to life terms, he is being targeted and being pressurised to submit a affidavit to the Delhi High court denying his evidence.

“In revenge, D.P. Yadav (father of convict Vikas Yadav) planted false complainants against me that led to filing of at least nine criminal cases in different police stations of Ghaziabad through his men Subhash Yadav and Vivek Bhatnagar and my former wife Tanu Chaudhary,” he claimed.

Katara added that after police’s final report in all the nine cases absolved him, Yadav allegedly concocted a false story of a threat to his life and lodged a false complaint against him in Dhanari police station of Badaun.

Through his political influence, Yadav was pressing the police to arrest him, Katara said and added he had to file a writ in the Allahabad High Court.

However, Yadav denied the charges.

“These are all his tactics to evade his arrest in a case filed against him by his wife Tanu Chaudhary. He was denied relief by the high court and the Supreme Court and is now facing a trial at Gurgaon court. I have no idea of any stay in my case,” Yadav said.