Katara case: 340 days in hospital won’t be part of jail term

Times of India: New Delhi: Saturday, February 07, 2015.

The 200-odd hospital visits by Vikas Yadav and cousin Vishal as well as the lengthy Nitish Katara trial together cost the state exchequer close to Rs 6 crore. The Delhi high court on Friday found a link between the high number of hospital visits made by the Yadav cousins on flimsy health grounds and the burden it put on the taxpayer who had to foot their travel, boarding and security bills.

TOI had first highlighted the misuse of hospital recommendation by the duo, after an RTI filed by the victim's doughty mother Neelam Katara revealed the high number of visits to AIIMS, Batra Hospital and a few private hospitals. Taking a grim view, the bench of Justices Gita Mittal and J R Midha initiated a PIL to streamline the system of outdoor visits by inmates in jail to ensure that similar misuse of facilities is not repeated and ordered that the time spent by the two in hospital 340 days won't be counted as jail term.

It also asked the Yadav brothers to cough up more than Rs 1 crore as compensation to Neelam and the state governments of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The court observed how "despite convictions they show no concern for society and persist in aggressively manipulating the systems" while noting with alarm that Vikas even disappeared from his hospital room on a Diwali night while on a medical visit to AIIMS.

In a first, the court also made a rough estimate of money spent in the trial and subsequent incarceration of the Yadavs to conclude they cost the public exchequer Rs 5.86 crore. It includes nearly Rs 75 lakh spent on the security and upkeep of Vikas Yadav, Vishal Yadav and Sukhdev Pehelwan. The court relied on jail administration data to realize that expenses incurred in boarding and lodging of the three convicts in jail during trial and later was Rs 35.6 lakh while Rs 39.95 lakh were spent in their transportation, security and manpower from jail to court and hospitals.

It also factored in a report of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority that revealed Rs 3.89 crore was spent by government in protecting the crucial witnesses including victim's mother, brother and others. Star witness Ajay Katara was protected by UP police at the cost of Rs 62 lakh while a total of Rs 2 crore were spent in providing protection to special public prosecutor B S Joon.