Rajesh Ranjan पप्पू यादव (born 1961/1962 (age 49–50)[1]), better known as Pappu Yadav, is an Indian politician. He won elections to the Lok Sabha in 1991, 1996, 1999, and in 2004 from several constituencies in Bihar on the RJD ticket. On 2008-02-14, he was convicted in the murder of Communist Party of India (Marxist) legislator Ajit Sarkar and sentenced to life. Subsequently he was debarred from the 2009 general election.
Pappu Yadav has more than 15 criminal cases pending against him,[2] but has been convicted only in the Ajit Sarkar murder case.
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Pappu Yadav comes from a farmer family in Madhepura and started off as a farmer. He was born in Khurda, Karveli in Madhepura district. From his college life he started his career as a student.
Initially a small-time criminal, he moved up the crime ladder along with his role in politics. By the late 90s, he was a well-established mafia don, muscling his way around Bihar and across India.[2]
He was elected to the Bihar legislative assembly from Singheshwar,Madhepura in 1990 as an independent candidate, but in 1991 he contested and won through to the 11th Lok Sabha from Purnea. He served four Lok Sabha terms, and asked one question on agriculture.[3] He has been a member, off and on, of Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal. He has switched parties often, having been a member of the Samajwadi Party, and LJP.
Ajit Sarkar was a firebrand CPI-M member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from Purnia and Katihar, and active in farmer politics. He had a long history of animosity with Pappu Yadav. On 1998-06-14, he was gunned down in broad daylight at Subhash Nagar in Purnia, along with his driver and a party worker.[4] At that time, Pappu Yadav had left RJD. So, in 1999, Pappu Yadav was arrested for the murder. Eventually, the investigation was transferred from the Bihar Police to the CBI, who charged Pappu Yadav along with four others, for organizing the murder.
Pappu Yadav was jailed in Sikkim, but he used his political connections to turn Beur jail into his"fiefdom".[5] There was considerable media attention[6] on Yadav's conduct in Tihad jail, with the Indian Supreme Court investigating the alleged violation of prison rules. Yadav was accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of making about 640 calls from his mobile phone, many of them to prominent people.[7] In January 2005, the Supreme Court of India ordered that phone jammers be installed in the jails to prevent inmates from using mobile phones.
Yadav was also accused of re-entering Beur Jail after he was released on official bail, and holding a party for the inmates of the jail. The main warden was suspended when the news of the event came to light. Eventually, in 2004, Yadav was transferred to Tihar Jail in Delhi.[6]
In February 2008, a special CBI court convicted Pappu Yadav in the Ajit Sarkar murder case, along with former legislator Rajan Tiwari and noted criminal Anil Yadav.[8] The court sentenced the three convicts to life imprisonment.
On 2 April 2009, the Patna High Court rejected Yadav's plea to be allowed to contest the 2009 Indian parliamentary elections, since he had been convicted for murder.[9] On 11 April, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav expelled Pappu Yadav from the party.[10]
His mother Shanti Priya, who was a candidate from Purnea, also lost to Uday Singh of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
During 2010 Bihar Vidhan Sabha elections Pappu Yadav along with Anil Yadav and Rampravesh Rai expelled from Rashtriya Janata Dal for alleged anti-party activity. They were charged with working against the party's official nominee for Fatua assembly constituency Ramanand Yadav.[11]