DP Yadav sentenced for life for ex-MLA’s murder

Dehradun, March 10:

Mafia don-turned-politician D.P. Yadav was Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment by a CBI court for his involvement in the murder of former Dadri legislator Mahendra Singh Bhati.

While Yadav was not present during the sentencing, three other convicts in the case were present in the courtroom when the sentence was pronounced.

Yadav surrendered to the court Monday but excused himself from the court proceedings on Tuesday, citing ill health. Accused of murdering Bhati in 1992, Yadav’s three other aides Pal Singh, Pranit Bhatti and Karan, who also surrendered on February 28, have been convicted and sentenced for life.

Bhati was peppered with bullets in broad daylight in what was believed to be a part of the gang wars in the western Uttar Pradesh. After initial probe into the murder, the case was recommended for a CBI probe. The premiere investigative agency took up the case on September 10, 1993.

Yadav began his formative political innings under former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav but later parted ways with him. He was also in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and also was a member of the BJP for a day, before being fired after a media furore on his entry in the party that claimed to be ‘different’.

Yadav has been a member of the state assembly four times from Sahaswan and Bulandshahr in western UP and also served as an MP, both in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. His son Vikas Yadav was convicted of the murder of Nitish Katara, a bureaucrat’s son, and is currently in jail. IANS