Fourteen years ago, Neelam Katara had made a “commitment” to her murdered son that she would not rest until his killers were brought to justice. With the Supreme Court on Monday confirming its order to award 25 years in jail to Nitish Katara’s killers, Ms. Katara seems to have fulfilled her promise.
Acknowledging that the long battle had been “difficult” and “taxing”, Ms. Katara hoped the judgment would go a long way in her war against 'honour' killing.
“Honour killing is not like other murders. Many people do not treat honour killing as a crime and consider it their right,” Ms. Katara told The Hindu .
“It is a crime against girls. And the patriarchal mindset of society is responsible for it. A separate law against honour killing is required because of how huge this crime is... our society cannot afford to turn a blind eye,” Ms. Katara said.
Her battle was dotted with “intimidation and threats”, but what really troubled her was the delay of three years in the case. “The other victim (Bharti Yadav) was kept away from the courts for three years and the delay was really taxing,” Ms. Katara said.
She said she was relieved that her son’s killers would remain behind bars without remission for the next 25 years.
“My biggest victory is that my son’s killers will not get remission after just 14 years. I am happy that the Supreme Court did not take it as just another murder case, but a planned case of honour killing by powerful and rich people,” she said.
The mother said that the court has “quantitatively” reduced five years of punishment, which was earlier supposed to be run consecutively for destruction of evidence, but she would be justified even if she sought an additional 10 years imprisonment for the killers.
“By destruction of evidence, we are not talking about shoes or slippers. They destroyed my son’s body,” she said. After kidnapping Nitish Katara in 2002, the cousins of Bharti Yadav — Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav — had doused the victim’s body with diesel and set him ablaze.
