In a deposition which both the prosecution and the defence claimed favoured them, Bharti Yadav, a key prosecution witness and sister of main accused in the Nitish Katara murder case, turned hostile and claimed that she was not in love with the victim and so there was no question of her family disliking Nitish.

She denied telling a woman police officer in Ghaziabad in 2002 that her friendship with Nitish developed into love or that there was any marriage proposal, although she liked him.

She denied gifting any wristwatch to Nitish. In the 30-page deposition done in-camera, which concluded in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur on Thursday, Bharti, now living in London [Images], denied having given any statement to the police after Nitish's murder on February 16, 2002, under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Her deposition was made public on Friday with the court's permission. She maintained that she had only had a conversation with a woman police officer and did not know that it was written down.

At this stage, special public prosecutor B S Joon, contended that his key witness has resiled from her previous statement and sought to cross examine her, which the court allowed.

Bharti, however, admitted that her brother Vikas and cousin Vishal Yadav, apart from Nitish, were present during the marriage of her friend Shivani Gaur.

She denied having danced with Nitish there and having known another accused Sukhdev alias Pehelwan.

Acccording to the prosecution case, Nitish was kidnapped by Vikas and Vishal Yadav and done away with because they did not like Bharti's relationship with the victim.

On being asked whether she received a call from Nitish on the day of the wedding, she said that she did not possess a mobile phone at that time.

She also said that she did not know if her brother and cousin took Nitish away from the marriage place in a Tata Safari on February 16, 2002, and that she got to know that through from Khurja in Bulandshahr.

Bharti told the court that she was very close to Nitish Katara, but did not agree with intimacy being judged from photographs.

She also maintained that she did not tell the woman police official that their friendship developed into love, and she started liking Nitish "with my heart".

She also said she did not tell the police that Nitish used to love her very much and he had talked with his mother about their marriage.

"I was very close to Nitish Katara, but intimacy which is being judged from photographs, is not just," she said.

Asserting that she only shared a friendship with Nitish, Bharti said her brother and cousin were not aware of her friendship.

Bharti admitted the photographs were taken at the marriage showing her with Nitish and a friend Bharat Diwakar along with Shivani and her husband. The pictures of Vikas and Vishal were also taken at the marriage..

She admitted having sent fax messages to the court during the years 2003 to 2006. She further asserted the fact of having told higher authorities after the arrest of her brother and cousin that they were very caring and loving, and could not do commit such acts.

Bharti deposed that her e-mail address was 'bhartisingh@hotmail.com' and not 'oopcie@yahoo.com' as suggested by the prosecution. She said that she never sent any e-mail to Nitish's brother Nitin at his e-mail address 'zindalash@hotmail.com' about Nitish not being traceable.

She admitted having given Nitish's address as hers for opening a bank account in BNP Paribas Bank at Connaught Place.

Nitin was cross-examined on Friday by the counsel for Vikas, Gulshan Bharti, who grilled him about the identity of the prosecution witness Ajay Katara.

He said that he did not know any Ajay Katara or if he is a witness in the case.

On intense questioning, Nitin stood firm that he has no relative or a family friend by the name of Ajay nor that he belonged to their village Katara. He said that he never heard of any Ajay accompanying his mother to Ghaziabad to lodge a complaint.

Nitin admitted that he came in contact with one Ajay Prashad during the investigation, but he did not know any other Ajay including the one with a defective eye.

Ajay Katara is the witness alleged to have last seen Nitish.

He told the court that he submitted the e-mails to police, but did not ask them to verify whether they were from Bharti.