New Delhi: Vijama Yadav tried hard to contain her tears as she described the pain of having seen the convicted killer of her husband walk out of jail without serving a full term. The entire Uttar Pradesh Assembly, which included chief minister Yogi Adityanath in attendance, listened in stunned silence as Yadav poured out her grievance and cried for justice.
“AK-47 (Avtomat Kalashnikova rifle) was fired at my husband and the government has set him (the convict) free. Tomorrow, even I may get murdered. My family may be murdered. The government will be responsible for that,” said Yadav, a Samajwadi Party legislator from Prayagraj, in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday (July 30).
She recalled the protracted legal struggle for justice she had to bear for her deceased husband Jawahar Yadav alias Pandit, who was an SP MLA when he was murdered in 1996 in the posh Civil Lines area of Prayagraj, when it was still known by its more famous name Allahabad.
Having “run from pillar to post for 18 years”, she finally secured a conviction against the accused persons from court in 2019. But the Adityanath government recently ordered the premature release of one of the four convicts in the case, ex BJP MLA Uday Bhan Karwariya, an influential politician from Prayagraj.
Yadav concluded her speech by proposing that if a person convicted for her husband’s murder with a deadly weapon such as an AK-47 rifle could be set free, there were many other prisoners, serving time in less severe cases, who also deserved to be released.
A two-time former legislator, Karwariya had walked free in the Jawahar Yadav murder case last Thursday (July 25) after the Adityanath government controversially decided to cut short his life sentence. Vijama Yadav has vowed to challenge the decision in court, continuing her unending battle for justice.
BJP govt’s concerted efforts to set former MLA free
The decision to set Karwariya free, however, was not as abrupt as it seemed. Court proceedings and orders reviewed by The Wire show that before ordering Karwariya’s premature release from the Naini Central Jail through an executive order, the Adityanath government since coming to power in 2017 had made a concerted attempt to withdraw the murder case against the influential Brahmin politician.
These moves were made even though the state government’s own public prosecutor had opined that there was sufficient evidence against Karwariya to convict him, which eventually happened.
In 2019, a court in Prayagraj convicted Karwariya, his brothers Kapil Muni Karwariya (former BSP Member of Parliament 2009-14) and Suraj Bhan Karwariya (former MLC) and their relative Ram Chandra Tripathi, a former headmaster, for the murder of Jawahar Yadav.
They were sentenced to life imprisonment. Jawahar Yadav was murdered on August 13, 1996 in the busy Civil Lines market of Allahabad, when he was returning home from office. The accused persons overtook Yadav’s vehicle and intercepted it before forcing it to halt through a collision. They fired indiscriminately at Yadav’s vehicle, allegedly with sophisticated weapons. Yadav, his driver and a passer-by were killed, sending shockwaves across the state.
The matter sprung back to life on July 19 this year after the UP Prisons Administration and Reforms Services department, which falls under Adityanath, issued an order stating that Uday Bhan Karwariya could be released from jail if no other case was pending against him.
The government said that Karwariya had spent eight years, nine months and 11 days in jail till July 30, 2023. The reasons given for his release were: recommendation of the district police chief and district magistrate; his “good behaviour” in jail and the recommendation of the mercy petition committee.
The stage for letting off Karwariya had been set much earlier, soon after the BJP came to power in 2017. That year, Uday Bhan’s wife Neelam Karwariya contested election from the Meja Assembly seat in Prayagraj as a BJP candidate and won.
Five months after being elected an MLA, Neelam submitted an application to the state government on July 17, 2017 seeking the withdrawal of the case against the Karwariyas. Acting upon it, the special secretary to the state’s department of justice sought a report from the District Magistrate of Allahabad, who responded by saying that it would not be appropriate to withdraw the accused persons from the prosecution considering the “seriousness of the matter” and the “evidence available.”
On May 31, 2017, the DM conveyed this to the principal secretary of the department of justice.
The DM sought a detailed report from the special public prosecutor conducting the trial against the Karwariyas and the Senior Superintendent of Police Allahabad.
The public prosecutor submitted a report concluding that there was no merit to withdraw the accused persons from the prosecution. The public prosecutor’s report noted that the evidence on record were quite sufficient to convict the accused persons. This reasoning was accepted and adopted by the district police chief of Allahabad.
That’s not where it ended. The state government’s department of justice on January 16, 2018, directed the DM to remit a copy of the “medical report” of the accused. The department also sought the case diary related to the investigation, which were sent to it on September 20, 2018. The department made another demand, seeking copies of the statements recorded during the course of trial. This was also provided by the DM on September 28, 2018.
Armed with these documents, the state government sought the opinion of the state advocate general, who on October 24, 2018 submitted a written opinion saying that there was a valid reason to withdraw the case and that it could be done as per provisions of Section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
Uday Bhan upon his release from jail. Source: Shared by social media pages run by his supporters.
The state government examined the matter following which the Governor granted sanction for presenting an application for withdrawing the accused persons from prosecution. The decision was communicated to the DM on November 1, 2018 through a government order and wasting no time, within 24 hours, the DM asked the public prosecutor to move an application for withdrawal from prosecution.
On November 3, 2018, the public prosecutor filed an application in court for withdrawal, arguing that it would serve public interest and interest of justice.
Court had said U-turn of public prosecutor was not in good faith
In a U-turn from his earlier report, this time the public prosecutor argued that there “appears no sufficient ground for punishment” and the Karwariyas appear to have been falsely implicated due to political rivalry. The Prayagraj additional sessions court on December 10, 2018, however, rejected this application, concluding that it was neither in public interest nor in good faith.
Uday Bhan filed an application from jail challenging the court’s order. The Adityanath government, too, filed a revision petition against the order. The Allahabad High court on July 19, 2019 rejected both the pleas and upheld the lower court’s order. This was a big setback for Uday Bhan as well as the Adityanath government.
In his judgment, then Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court Govind Mathur took note of the “hurried somersault in change of opinion” of the public prosecutor, who had in December 2017, after examining the evidence concluded that there was sufficient evidence to record conviction, but “changed his view immediately after receiving the instructions” from the government.
The CJ doubted if the public prosecutor had “acted in good faith.” The HC ruled that the government’s decision to withdraw the case was not in good faith and did not serve public interest or policy. The court also remarked that “political interference” in the withdrawal from prosecution could not be denied.
Three-and-a-half months after the HC’s decision, a special court convicted the Karwariyas on November 4, 2019. In May 2023, the Allahabad High Court rejected the bail pleas of the Karwariya brothers filed as criminal appeal. A Division Bench of Justices Salil Kumar Rai and Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal said their case was not fit for bail considering the “gravity of the offence” and “evidence on record.”
Jawahar Yadav was elected an MLA in 1993 from Jhusi in Allahabad. His murder three years later forced his widow Vijama Yadav, then only 26, to embrace electoral politics. She went on to be elected as an MLA four times, the recent being in 2022 when she won from Pratappur. Her legal battle to get the Karwariyas convicted was long and difficult.
A month after the murder, the investigation was transferred to the Crime Branch (CID) on the letter of Allahabad MP from BJP Murli Manohar Joshi.
Convicted former MLA receives rousing welcome upon premature release
Within three weeks, the investigation was transferred again, to the Crime Branch Varanasi and then to the Crime Branch Lucknow in June 2002. The CB Lucknow completed the investigation in January 2004, almost eight years after the murder. In 2008, when the Bahujan Samaj Party government was in power, Kapil Muni Karwariya filed an application in court for further investigation. The state government in November 2008 ordered for further investigation by CB Allahabad. This was completed by October, 2009.
Meanwhile, the accused persons had filed a petition in the HC in 2004 challenging the chargesheet filed in case. A single bench completed the hearing on August 16, 2005 but reserved the judgment. The bench also stayed further proceedings in the criminal case.
While rejecting Uday Bhan’s application in 2019, CJ Mathur noted that it was “unfortunate” that the judgment in the case was not delivered by the judge for a period of more than two years and that the judge ultimately demitted the office on attaining the age of superannuation on September 30, 2007 without delivering the judgment.
The interim order of August 16, 2005 remained applicable as the matter was not brought to the notice of the then Chief Justice and no progress took place in the matter.
“The entire case would have not seen dais of the Court,” if Vijama Yadav had not approached the Supreme Court through a writ petition in 2014, noted CJ Mathur. Her petition was disposed on January 5, 2015 with the SC requesting the Chief Justice of the HC to look into the matter and dispose of the case within three months. The trial could truly start only after this.
Upon his release, Uday Bhan received a roaring welcome from his supporters and speculation is already rife on what kind of a political impact his release would have. He was elected as BJP MLA twice from the Bara constituency, in 2002 and 2007. In 2012, he contested from Allahabad North but lost. In 2022, his wife Neelam lost her election. His brothers continue to be in jail, for now.