A court in Delhi has found Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav guilty of the horrific murder of Dehli student Nitish Katera, which occurred six years ago. Vikas, who is the son of the influential Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav, and his cousin were found guilty of murder, kidnapping and destruction of evidence.

Judge Ravinder Kaur delivered the guilty verdict to a packed courtroom, although the pair will not be sentenced until Friday. While a life sentence is possible, Special Public Prosecutor B.S. Joon said that he would be demanding the death penalty for the accused.

The Yadav’s lawyers said that they would be appealing against the guilty verdict, because they believed that the entire judgement was made on circumstantial evidence. However, Katara's mother, Neelam Katara, praised the court verdict after the hearing. She said: "I thank god and the media for helping me out in this long battle. This is a landmark judgement and my belief in the judicial system has increased." She also added that she thought ‘Justice has been done’ in the trial, she said: "Justice has been done. I am happy with the justice. This verdict will be a milestone."

Nitish Katara, the son of a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was a management student who was kidnapped and murdered after he attended a wedding in Ghaziabad on 16th February 2002. The Yadavs were arrested a couple months after Katara’s badly charred body was found in a village in Bulandhshahr in Uttar Pradesh.

It is thought that Vikas and Vishal Yadav killed Nitish because they did not approve of his romantic relationship with Vikas's sister, Bharti Yadav. Bharti Yadav, who studied alongside Nitish and dated him for four years, was listed as the trial’s prime witness by the prosecution. Immediately after the murder, Bharti Yadav’s powerful family sent her away to London, but she was forced to return to Delhi in 2006 in order to give the court her side of the story.

This high-profile case - along with the murder of model and socialite Jessica Lal, which Vilkas is currently spending time in prison for - has caused major outrage in India. A number of activists have been campaigning to seek justice for the victims of these cases. Nitish’s Mother has been pursuing her son’s case relentlessly over the past six years it has been in court, while Nitish’s friends also sought justice for their friend by using online petitions and a blog to raise awareness of the case.

The guilty verdict has been long awaited by followers of this lengthy trial, particularly because the Yadav’s defence team had made several attempts to try and delay the judgment.