Terming as “unreasonable” the frequent visits of Nitish Katara murder case convicts Vikas and Vishal Yadav from Tihar Jail to various hospitals, the Delhi High Court on Thursday asked AIIMS to set up a medical board to examine them.
A bench of justices Gita Mittal and V K Shali also asked the jail authorities to produce medical records of the two convicts.
Ordering formation of a medical board to examine the duo at 11 am on February 7, the bench asked the AIIMS authorities to file the report on their health condition.
After going through the jail records on their treatment at AIIMS and Batra Hospital, the court said, “Before passing any order, the bench would like to know the present health condition of the convicts.”
The court also termed their visits to AIIMS and Batra Hospital as “unreasonable” and asked the hospitals to produce their medical records within three weeks.
“These are unreasonable visits. No record suggested that the treatment for TB was given to them. It appeared there was no need of their hospital visit,” the bench said, while going through the records which stated that Vishal visited Batra Hospital more than 40 times, while Vikas went to AIIMS for over 80 times.
The court asked AIIMS to submit Vikas’ medical records since 2008 till date in a sealed cover to it by February 24, while asking Batra Hospital to produce the same pertaining to Vishal’s treatment there till date since 2002.
The court took serious note of the fact that Vikas had stayed in an ‘A-class luxury room’ in a private ward of AIIMS from October 10 to November 4, 2011 for a CT scan of his knee and spine but nothing was done during that period and the scan was finally conducted as an OPD patient.
He paid only Rs 7,000 for the CT scan and rest of the expenses were borne by the State, according an official report said.
The counsel for the Delhi police regretted before the court, “The money paid by the tax payers goes (down the drain) in such a way.”
The court also asked the jail authorities to file a report on number of security personnel deployed for their security during their visits to hospitals.
Lawyer P K Dey, appearing for victim’s mother Neelam Katara, told the court that under the garb of a Delhi High Court order dating back to 2004, Vishal visited Batra hospital where the treatment for tuberculosis lasted for few months.
Later too, Vishal continued visiting the same hospital frequently on one pretext or another at State’s expense, he submitted.
The court was hearing Neelam Katara’s plea seeking a direction to the jail authorities and AIIMS to produce entire records relating to Yadav brothers’ ailments and their visits to the various hospitals.
Nitish Katara, a business executive, was abducted from a marriage party in Ghaziabad on nights intervening February 16 and 17, 2002 and was later killed by the convicts for his alleged intimacy with Vikas’s sister Bharti Yadav.
The trial court has sentenced Yadav brothers and co-accused Sukhdev Pehlwan to life imprisonment for the murder of Nitish Katara.
