SP MLA Jawahar Yadav murder case: Uday Bhan Karwariya gets premature release from jail

After former cabinet Amar Mani Tripathi and his wife, another influential politician former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Uday Bhan Karwariya, will be given premature release on remission after spending eight years and nine months in jail, senior government officials said here on Saturday.

Uday Bhan was one of the three Karwariya brothers - elder brother, Kapil Muni Karwariya, former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP, and younger brother Suraj Bhan Karwariya, former BSP MLC - who were sentenced to life imprisonment in the sensational murder of former Samajwadi Party MLA Jawahar Yadav alias Jawahar Pandit.

Uday Bhan is a two-time BJP MLA from Bara, having won from the seat in 2002 and 2007.

The Karwariya brothers had immense clout and hold in sand mining in Prayagraj and its adjoining region, including Kaushambi and Fatehpur. Their family members still have a stronghold on the sand mining business in the region as well as having immense political clout.

The murder of Jawahar Yadav was also the fallout of his increasing interference in the sand mining business after getting the support from the then Samajwadi Party government in the state in August 1996.

For his premature release, the state government issued an order dated July 19, 2024, in which it was mentioned that he could be released following his good behavior while being lodged in jail and the positive recommendation made by the mercy petition committee.

The order further read that he had spent eight years, nine months and 11 days in jail till July 30, 2023, and he could be released if no other case is pending against him, after submitting two sureties as per the order of district police chief and district magistrate with an assurance to not disturb law and order.

HT has downloaded a copy from the government order website of the UP government.

Jailor of Naini Central Jail, Alok Kumar, said that the copy of the order is yet to be received by the jail administration. “After receiving the orders, jail administration will forward the concerned documents to the district administration. The former MLA may be released by Monday after completion of formalities and approval by the district administration,” he added.

A senior government official privy to the development, said Uday Bhan’s brothers, who were also convicted and sentenced to a life term in the case, will continue to remain in jail.

He said that the three brothers were sentenced by an Allahabad district and sessions court along with one Ram Chandra alias Kallu in Jawahar Yadav’s murder on November 4, 2019.

Recalling the past, a senior police official said Jawahar Yadav, the then SP MLA, was sprayed with bullets with an AK-47 rifle in the Civil Lines area of Prayagraj, when he was going to the railway station on August 13, 1996. He said that it was for the first time when an AK-47 was used in any crime in Prayagraj. The initial investigation was carried out by the Uttar Pradesh police and later it was transferred to CB-CID, he added.

The murder had not only caused ripples in power corridors of the state but also caused terror among citizens, many of whom had never heard about the sophisticated AK-47 rifle used in the shootout. Police had found marks of 16 bullets on the car of the politician during the investigation.

In his statement, Jawahar Yadav’s brother-in-law and witness Ramlochan Yadav had told the court that the accused who were standing over a distance of three feet fled the scene after firing hundreds of shots at the car.

Earlier, the Prisons Administration and Reform Services Department on August 24, 2023, issued an order for the premature release of another influential politician, Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani Tripathi, citing the state’s 2018 policy on remission, since they had completed 20 years of imprisonment in the case of murder of slain poetess Madhumita Shukla in Lucknow. The couple has been out of jail since then.