A Uttar Pradesh constable on Friday resiled in a court in Delhi from his earlier statement that he had seen all the three accused along with deceased Nitish Katara in a car on the fateful night of February 16, 2002.
In a trial against third accused Sukhdev Pehlwan who was earlier declared proclaimed offender, Constable Inderjeet today took a u-turn by saying, "It is wrong to suggest that I had seen the three accused Vikas, Vishal and Pehlwan along with victim Katara in a Tata Safari car."
Inderjeet, who was manning a traffic intersection in Ghaziabad on the intervening night of February 16-17 in 2002, admitted having seen Katara in the car.
However, he declined to have told the police that the three accused were also present with Katara in the car.
Considering his retraction from his earlier statement given to the Kavi Nagar police in which he had said that he had seen all the three accused with the victim in the car, Public Prosecutor B S Joon requested the court to declare him hostile and further sought permission to cross-examine him, which was allowed.
Pehlwan, who was working as an attendant at a liquor shop, allegedly owned by controversial UP politician D P Yadav, did not join the probe in the case in 2002 and was declared proclaimed offender.
A separate trial had started against him in 2005 after his arrest from Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh.
Prosecution has alleged that it was he who had disposed of Katara's body after hammering him to death.
Katara, the son of an IAS officer, was murdered after being kidnapped allegedly by Vikas and Vishal as they were unhappy over his growing affnity with their sister Bharti Yadav.