The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea by the Delhi government seeking the death penalty for the three men convicted of killing business executive Nitish Katara in 2002. Last month, the apex court had declined a similar plea by Katara’s mother Neelam. A bench of justices JS Khehar and R Banumathi said, "What they did cannot be condoned, but [the offence] is not so heinous and abhorring that warrants death."

The convicts – Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav’s son Vikas, his nephew Vishal, and driver Sukhdev Pehalwan – were previously sentenced to a 30-year jail term without remission by the Delhi High Court. Ruling that the murder can neither be classified as an honour killing nor is it the rarest of rare crimes, the SC bench had said that it does not warrant the death penalty. Katara's lawyers argued that it was indeed an honour killing as Nitish was picked up from a party where he was seen with Vikas's sister Bharti and was killed since the family did not approve of the relationship.