New Delhi: Controversial Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav was sentenced to life behind bars on Tuesday by a special CBI court for the murder of an MLA 23 years ago.
Yadav’s son Vikas and another family-member Vishal are also in prison, serving a 30-year jail term for the highly-publicised murder of businessman Nitish Katara in 2002.
Pronouncing the quantum of punishment, special CBI judge Amit Kumar Sirohi sentenced DP Yadav, a former MP, and three others to life imprisonment and also imposed upon them a fine of Rs 1 lakh each, Yadav’s counsel Rupendra Bhandari said.
“We will file a review petition in the Uttarakhand high court seeking relief,” Bhandari said.
While Vikas is jailed in New Delhi, Yadav will spend time at the district jail in Dehradun, 280 km from the national capital.
Apart from Yadav those sentenced to life imprisonment in the 1992 murder case are Pal Singh, Karan Yadav and Praneet Bhati.
All of them were convicted for murdering Mahendra Singh Bhati, who was said to be Yadav’s mentor in a flourishing liquor trade. Bhati was then a member of the UP assembly from Ghaziabad.
The case was transferred to Dehradun in 2000 on the direction of the Supreme Court after doubts were expressed about fair trial in Uttar Pradesh where Yadav is an influential politician.
“My father’s murder had caused immense pain and suffering to our family and we have not been able to overcome the loss till now… but we are happy with the law of our country which has not spared the guilty,” said Samir, son of the slain leader after the verdict.
Once a close confidante of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, the muscleman from western UP had first switched loyalty to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and later settled in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
In between, he had also launched his own political outfit, Rastriya Parivartan Dal, but did not catch the attention of the people.
