4 years after life sentence for murder, former BJP MLA set for early release

The decision comes around a year after the state government ordered the remission of the life terms being served by former minister Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani Tripathi in a murder case.

On November 4, 2019, a Prayagraj court sentenced Uday Bhan (55), his brothers Suraj Bhan and Kapil Muni, and their uncle Ram Chandra, to life imprisonment for the murder of the murder of the SP’s Jawahar Yadav, also known as Jawahar Pandit. In 2018, the same court had rejected the state government’s plea to withdraw the murder case against the brothers.

Suraj Bhan is a former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLC and Kapil Muni is a former BSP MP. They are currently incarcerated in Prayagraj’s Naini Central Jail along with Uday Bhan.

Naini Central Jail Superintendent Jung Bahadur Singh said he had not received the release order yet.

Confirming the order, a senior official of the Prisons Department said: “In the order, the state government has directed Uday Bhan to deposit two sureties of equal amount to the satisfaction of the District Magistrate, along with a personal bond of the same amount.”

The SP MLA was killed in 1996 when a group of people fired on his vehicle with AK-47 rifles in Prayagraj’s Civil Lines area. Two others, including Jawahar Yadav’s driver Gulab Yadav, also died in the attack.

A police investigation found that the murder was the result of political and business rivalry.

Uday Bhan won the 2002 and 2007 Assembly elections, contesting on a BJP ticket from the Bara seat in Prayagraj.

Uday Bhan’s wife, Neelam Karwariya, contested and won the 2017 Assembly election from the Meja Assembly seat in Prayagraj on a BJP ticket. Neelam, however, lost the 2022 Assembly election to SP’s Sandeep Singh by a narrow margin, contesting again on a BJP ticket.

Jawahar Yadav’s wife, four-time MLA Vijayma Yadav, said she would move court against the state government’s decision.

“If this government releases the convicts of a triple murder case, then they should also release other convicts who are in jail. If the triple murder convicts are released after serving such a short term, what message does the government want to give? I never felt that he had served a life imprisonment in jail,” said Vijama Yadav, who won the 2022 Assembly election on an SP ticket from the Pratappur seat in Prayagraj.