New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, directed all states and Union Territories to immediately identify and release all convicts who are still in prison despite having completed their sentences.
The Bench of Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice K V Viswanathan was hearing a plea by Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehalwan who has served his 20-year sentence in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case, even without considering remission.
The Bench further instructed that its order be sent to the member secretary of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), who will ensure it is communicated to the respective District Legal Services Authorities across the country.
In June this year, the Supreme Court had granted three months furlough to Pehalwan. The Bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice K Vinod Chandran had then noted that he has undergone 20 years of uninterrupted incarceration without remission.
Pehalwan had then challenged a November 2024 order of the Delhi High Court, which dismissed his petition, seeking furlough for three weeks.
The Court had then directed that Pehalwan be produced before the trial court within seven days and appropriate conditions be imposed on him by the trial court before grant of furlough.
On October 3, 2016, the Supreme Court had awarded 25-year jail terms, without the benefit of remission, to former cabinet minister D P Yadav’s son Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav for their role in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Nitish Katara.
Pehalwan, who was an accomplice, had been sentenced to 20 years.
All of them were convicted and sentenced for kidnapping Katara from a marriage party on the intervening night of February 16 and 17, 2002 and then killing him for his alleged affair with Vikas’ sister Bharti Yadav.