'Nitish and Bharti were madly in love'

New Delhi: Nitin Katara, brother of the victim in Nitish Katara muder case, on Monday told a Delhi court that his deceased brother and Bharti Yadav, sister of prime accused Vikas Yadav in the case, were "madly in love".

Deposing before the court of Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur, Nitin said he was in Pune on February 17, 2002 when he received a call from Bharti saying that her brothers had taken Nitish away and she was worried they would harm him.

He told the court that on February 19 he received another call from Bharti saying that henceforth she would communicate through e-mail only as it would be difficult to make phone calls. He had identified Nitish's body by his wrist watch.

Neelam Katara, mother of Nitish, said in her statement that Bharti, a key witness in the case, her deceased son, Bharat Diwakar, Shivani Gaur and Gaurav Gupta were friends while they were studying in a management institute in Ghaziabad.

The friendship continued after they passed out of the institute and took up jobs except Bharti who remained unemployed, she added.

Neelam told the court that the friendship between Bharti and Nitish later turned into a love affair and they intended to marry. Neelam said she was not in favour of the marriage but did not oppose it either as they were in love.

Statements of Nitin and Neelam Katara were recorded by the court as per its November 23 order after one of the accused Sukhdev had objected to the presence of Neelam, another witness, in the court during Bharti Yadav's deposition.