D. P. Yadav

Dharam Pal Yadav is an Indian gang leader from Western Uttar Pradesh who later joined politics. He is often referred to with epithets such as "mafia don",^[1] "underground don"^[2] or the "unrivalled don of western Uttar Pradesh".^[3] He is the father of Vikas Yadav, the convicted murderer of Nitish Katara. He was a MLA (member of the state legislature) four times (three times from Bulandshahr and once from Sahaswan) and also a MP (member of parliament) twice (representing Sambhal in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha). His wife, Umlesh Yadav, was MLA from Bisauli. His nephew is currently Member of Legislative Council (MLC) from Badayun.

Yadav joined a liquor bootlegging gang in the 1970s and quickly racked up nine murder charges.^[4] One of his bootlegged liquor ventures allegedly killed 350 people in the early 1990s.^[5] Seeking security from prosecution, he was inspired by the leader of his gang to join politics. Yadav befriended Mulayam Singh Yadav and Vichitra Veer Yadav and J.P. Yadav represented the Samajwadi Party, winning state elections in 1989, and was also on Mulayam's cabinet of ministers. There was no progress in most of the criminal cases against him. In 2004, he became a member of the Indian Parliament under the Bharatiya Janata Party but such was the ensuing scandal that the party threw him out within days.^[6]

In 2007, he formed the party Rashtriya Parivartan Dal, and two members were elected to the state legislature — himself from Sahaswan, and his wife Umlesh Yadav from Bisauli. Thereafter, he joined Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party and ran in the Indian General Election of 2009, but he lost. He left BSP just before the Assembly Elections in 2012, sensing a tide against BSP. He wanted to join the Samajwadi Party^[7] but was snubbed due to his criminal activities.^[8] He ran in the election as a candidate of his own party but lost.

The family's declared assets of Rs. 260 million makes them one of the richest political families in Uttar Pradesh.^[9] These are only his declared assets – his fortune is estimated to be well over Rs. 5 billion.^[10]

Life

D.P. Yadav comes from a farming family from the village of Sharfabad in Noida. A son of farmer Tejpal Yadav, he ran a dairy in Jagdish Nagar.^[10]

Yadav owns numerous businesses, including sugar and paper mills, distilleries and other alcohol-related enterprises, hotels and resorts, a television channel, power projects, mines and construction companies. He also owns a college for girls in his native village and is a manager of SK Inter College in Garhi Chaukhandi, Noida. He has two sons and two daughters.

Since 1989, he has served several terms as minister in the state government, Member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha and MLA. He is also the President of NUBC (National union of Backward Class, SC and ST).

His wife Umlesh Yadav was also an MLA from Uttar Pradesh but was disqualified by the Election Commission of India in October 2011 for not declaring election expenses. His nephew, Jitendra Yadav, is MLC from Uttar Pradesh.He used to live in vasant Vihar farm house,New delhi before getting life imprisonment in Bhati murder case.^[11]

Criminal charges

Yadav became a bootlegger and entered the illegal country liquor trade as a protégé of ex-MLA Mahendra Singh Bhati in the late 1970s. Bhati was then the block pramukh (village council chief) in Ghaziabad. The first criminal charge against Yadav was registered in 1979 in the Kavi Nagar police station of Ghaziabad.^[12]

He has been charged in nine murder cases,^[4] three cases of attempted murder, two cases of dacoity, many cases of kidnapping for extortion, as well as various crimes under the Excise Act, Gangsters' Act, and even the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act. The cases were filed in the districts of Ghaziabad, Modinagar, Bulandshahr, Moradabad, Badayun, in western Uttar Pradesh, and in Jind and Sirsa districts in Haryana. In one of the cases filed against him in Haryana in the early 1990s, illicit liquor supplied by him was responsible for the death of 350 people.^[5][12]

By 1991 after he had entered politics, he had some 25 criminal cases registered against him.

During the BJP regime of chief minister Kalyan Singh, he was arrested under the National Security Act. In 1992 he was accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation of murdering his erstwhile mentor, Bhati, who was at the time MLA for Dadri.^[4] In March 2015, DP Yadav was sentenced to life in the Bhati murder case^[13] and currently serving life imprisonment in Dehradun jail.^[14]

Political career

In 2009, DP Yadav joined hands with Mulayam Singh Yadav, who offered him a candidacy from Bulandshahr under his Samajwadi Party. He won and became the minister for Panchayati Raj.

In 2004, Atal Bihari Vajpayee who has an otherwise clean image, faced considerable criticism for having inducted DP Yadav into his Bharatiya Janata Party, under which Yadav served on Indian Parliament's house of elders, the Rajya Sabha.^[5] Eventually, BJP terminated their relationship with Yadav after four days of media furor.

In 2007, he formed the Rashtriya Parivartan Dal with his wife. They were the only candidates, and both won in the Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections, 2007 – he from Sahaswan, she from Bisauli, both in western Uttar Pradesh district of Badaun. Later on, he merged his Rashtriya Parivartan Dal into Mayawati's BSP.

In the Indian general elections in Uttar Pradesh, 2009, Yadav joined hands with Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party and fought elections from Badaun (Lok Sabha constituency), but lost by 33,000 votes to Dharmendra Yadav, nephew of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Just before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly 2012 elections, DP Yadav left BSP and wanted to join Samajwadi Party but was snubbed.^[15] He fought the election as a candidate of his own party in Sahaswan constituency and was defeated. His political party did not win any seats.

References