The Uttar Pradesh Police Sunday said three of their men had received the promise of a Rs.50 lakh reward each for the murder of Ajay Katara, key witness in the Nitish Katara murder case.

Police said three security personnel who provided security to Ajay Katara Saturday filed a complaint with Superintendent of Police (Ghaziabad Rural) Jagdish Sharma that a colleague offered them Rs.1.5 crore to kill the man they were supposed to guard.

The three constables Harun Ali, Ravi Kumar and Vivek Pal Singh took their complaint to the SP.

The fourth security guard, Krishna Pal Singh Yadav, had joined them Jan 4, as the strength of the security cordon around Katara was fixed at four.

On the very first day of his duty as security guard, while travelling with Ajay Katara on his way to Babugarh in Hapur and Mehrauli in Ghaziabad, Krishna Pal asked the other three constables for help in eliminating Katara, the policemen said.

Krishna Pal, the policemen said, admitted to them that he had managed the new posting for a task that was assigned to him by former Uttar Pradesh legislator D.P. Yadav.

The former MLA’s son Vikas Yadav and nephew Vishal Yadav are serving life sentence in Tihar Jail, after being convicted in 2008 of the murder of Nitish Katara in February 2002.

The three policemen said they were all promised a reward of Rs.50 lakh each for assistance in the murder.

The three who complained about the plot had been serving as security guards of Ajay Katara for long. They said they were scared that if any untoward incident occurred, they would have to give up their jobs and face criminal proceedings. They said they had done their job well, having secured Katara for six years, and feared they would, far from being rewarded for their work, have to face ignominy if the plot succeeded.

In the six years of their time as security personnel for Katara, they had warded off 10 attempts on his life, they said.

“I have assigned the circle officer of the local intelligence unit to study the allegations and enquire into them,” Jagdish Sharma said.

Asked about the allegations, D.P. Yadav said he had ordered no such thing, and the allegations were baseless.

Twentyfour-year-old business executive Nitish Katara was murdered by the son of D.P. Yadav, as the family did not approve of his love affair with Bharti Yadav, the former MLA’s daughter.

Ajay Katara, also referred to as Ajay Kumar, and no relative of Nitish, was a passerby on the night of 16-17 Feb, 2002. He was riding a scooter near the Hapur Toll Tax collection centre past midnight, when his scooter broke down. He had seen the vehicle in which the business executive was being taken by the Yadavs.

Three days later, Nitish Katara’s body was found near the highway.

  cops, Katara murder, Uttar Pradesh