DP Yadav

Who is DP 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", "underground don" or the "unrivalled don of western Uttar Pradesh". He is the father of Vikas Yadav, the convicted murderer of Nitish Katara. He was a MLA four times and also a MP twice. His wife, Umlesh Yadav, was MLA from Bisauli. His nephew is currently MLC from Badayun.

Yadav joined a liquor bootlegging gang in the 1970s and quickly racked up nine murder charges. One of his bootlegged liquor ventures allegedly killed 350 people in the early 1990s. Seeking security from prosecution, he was inspired by the leader of his gang to join politics. Yadav befriended Mulayam Singh Yadav and 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.