UP: 27 years after GRP constable’s killing, BSP ex-MP Umakant Yadav gets life sentence

VARANASI: The court of additional district judge-III in Jaunpur in UP on Monday sentenced former Bahujan Samaj Party MP Umakant Yadav and six co-accused to life imprisonment in the murder case of a GRP constable after attacking Shahganj outpost in 1995.
The court also fixed a penalty of Rs five lakh on each accused.
Providing details of the court’s decision, district government counsel (criminal) Anil Singh Kaptan said, “The ADJ-III Sharad Kumar Tripathi awarded life imprisonment to Umakant Yadav and his six accomplices in the murder of GRP constable Ajay Singh. The court also ordered each accused to pay Rs five lakh as penalty.”
Umakant is already in Jaunpur jail while six other accused had been taken under police custody after the court had convicted them on August 6, he added.
On February 4, 1995 Yadav’s driver Rajkumar had a brawl with some passengers at a platform of Shahganj railway station in Jaunpur district when a GRP constable Raghunath tried to intervene.
But Rajkumar slapped Raghunath after which he was taken to GRP outpost of Shahganj with the help of other constables.
On becoming aware about it Yadav and his accomplices attacked GRP outpost and opened indiscriminate fire inside the outpost in their bid to get Rajkumar released from the lockup.
One constable Ajay Singh was killed in this firing while Yadav and his accomplices fled with Rajkumar.
Lodged in Jaunpur jail with a long criminal history, Yadav had won assembly election from Khutahan (now Shahganj assembly constituency) in 1991, 1993 on BSP ticket and as SP candidate in 1996.
In 2004 he contested the Lok Sabha election on BSP ticket from Machhlishehar and emerged victorious by defeating BJP’s stalwart Keshrinath Tripathi.
After charges of demolishing the home of a person in Azamgarh was levelled on Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati ensured his arrest after calling him at her residence in Lucknow.
Yadav’s brother and muscleman SP MLA Ramakant Yadav is also currently lodged in Azamgarh jail.