Return money spent on hospital visits,HC tells Vishal Yadav

“It was all tax payers’ money the government has spent for your security during your visits to hospitals including Batra Hospital. Let us see some bonafide,” said the bench,adding it would evaluate the total amount spent on him after perusing documents submitted by jail authorities.

The bench observed that it looked evident that more than Rs 16 lakh was spent on the number of security personnel who had accompanied the convict.

The bench asked the jail authorities to place before it the guidelines framed for prisoners who were sent to various hospitals other than Deen Dayal Upadhyay and LNJP hospitals for treatment.

The DDU and LNJP hospitals were also directed by the bench to file an affidavit making it clear whether they review the health condition of the Tihar patients before referring them to other hospitals.

On similar visits to hospitals by Vikas,the court sought an explanation from AIIMS as to why the convict had been shifted from ‘B’ class facility to ‘A’ class during his treatment in October 2011. The bench also asked AIIMS to mention if such facility was given earlier to any other prisoner.

The court passed the order on victim Nitish’s mother Neelam Katara’s petition. The petition,relying on a RTI reply disclosing that Vishal had visited hospitals 87 times,had claimed that these unreasonable visits were made possible as the convicts used their financial and political clout.

In 2008,a trial court has awarded life imprisonment to Vikas and Vishal for abducting Nitish from a marriage party at Ghaziabad on the night of February 16-17,2002 and killing him over his alleged intimacy with their sister Bharti.