New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today rejected the plea for death penalty and increased the sentence for Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal from life imprisonment to 25 years. The Court pronounced the without remission term for the murder of Nitish Katara, a friend of Vikas Yadav's sister.

The court also enhanced the jail term of another convict Sukhdev Pehelwan to 25 years, saying all of them will have to undergo rigorous imprisonment without any remission behind bars except for the additional five years awarded to the trio for destruction of evidence in the case.

A special bench of Justice Gita Mittal and Justice JR Midha also imposed a penalty of Rs 50 lakh each on Vikas, the son of UP politician DP Yadav, and his cousin Vishal for the murder.

The judges turned down the plea moved by Nitish's mother Neelam Katara and Delhi police seeking gallows for the three convicts.

The court, in its over 700-page judgement said that the time spent by Vikas in hospital (October 10, 2011 to November 4, 2011) shall not be counted as period already undergone by him in jail. It also asked the Centre and the state government to conduct an inquiry into the convicts' visits to the hospital during their stay in jail.

Vikas, his cousin Vishal Yadav and Sukhdev Pehelwan are serving life term for abducting and killing Katara, a business executive and the son of a railway officer, on the night of February 16-17, 2002, as they opposed the victim's affair with Bharti, daughter of DP Yadav.