By IANS,
Ghaziabad : Ajay Katara, the main witness in the 2002 murder of Delhi youth Nitish Katara, was Wednesday granted bail by a Ghaziabad court in a case relating to the abduction of a property dealer last month.
Ajay Katara was arrested Oct 3 on charges of allegedly kidnapping property dealer Dharmendra Yadav, who was later rescued by a police patrolling party that heard his cries for help.
He was granted bail by District Judge V.C. Gupta on a surety of Rs.50,000 and a personal bond.
Ajay Katara’s two security guards – Sachin Sharma and Ram Vir – were also granted bail. The judge ordered the guards, who were arrested Oct 6, to submit sureties of Rs.25,000 each.
The accused had been lodged in the Dasna Jail here for the last 40 days.
Katara had earlier alleged that he was being victimised as the police were helping Dharmendra Yadav under pressure from D.P. Yadav, a politician from Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), whose son and nephew have been convicted in the Nitish Katara murder case.
He had also filed a complaint that the property dealer was trying to kill him. The Ghaziabad police have so far registered eight cases on Ajay Katara’s complaints that D.P. Yadav’s men were threatening him and trying to kill him.
Ajay Katara’s testimony was crucial in the conviction of D.P. Yadav’s son Vikas and nephew Vishal in the murder of Nitish Katara.
Nitish Katara, son of a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was in love with D.P. Yadav’s daughter Bharti. Nitish was kidnapped and murdered after he attended a wedding in Ghaziabad Feb 16, 2002. His half burnt body was found in a village in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.