Omar Rashid 
New Delhi: The Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has ordered the premature release of Uday Bhan Karwariya, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and an influential leader from Prayagraj, who was convicted in 2019, along with his two brothers, for the murder of a former Samajwadi Party legislator.
The decision to set 55-year-old Karwariya free comes less than a year after the government allowed the early release of former cabinet minister Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani, who were serving life imprisonment for the murder of poetess Madhumita Shukla, with whom Amarmani was alleged to have had an intimate relationship. Both Tripathi and Karwariya belong to the dominant Hindu Brahmin community.
On July 19, the UP Prisons Administration and Reforms Services department issued an order stating that Karwariya could be released from jail if no other case was pending against him, and after submitting two sureties to the satisfaction of the district police chief and district magistrate.
Karwariya is lodged in Naini Central jail in Prayagraj. He was elected as a BJP MLA twice from the Bara constituency in Prayagraj (then Allahabad), in 2002 and 2007. In 2012, he had contested from Allahabad North but lost.
The UP Prisons Administration and Reforms Services department said Karwariya had spent eight years, nine months and 11 days in jail till July 30, 2023. The recommendation of the district police chief and district magistrate for his premature release, his “good behaviour” in jail and the recommendation of the mercy petition committee, were cited as reasons for the remission of Karwariya’s jail term, according to the order signed by department joint secretary Krishna Kumar Singh.
In November 2018, the Adityanath government filed an application to withdraw the murder case against Karwariya and his two brothers, but a special court rejected the request just a month later. The decision was upheld by the Allahabad high court.
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In November 2019, a local court in Prayagraj convicted Karwariya, his brothers Kapil Muni Karwariya and Suraj Bhan Karwariya, and their uncle Ram Chandra Tripathi, sentencing them to life imprisonment for the murder of former Samajwadi Party MLA Jawahar Yadav, also known as Pandit ji.
The murder took place on August 13, 1996 in the busy Civil Lines market of Allahabad when Yadav was returning home in a car from his office at Lowder Road. When the car crossed the Palace Cinema at 7 pm, it was overtaken by another vehicle which slowed down to its side while another vehicle, a jeep, drove ahead of it and slowed down, causing a collision with Yadav’s car. The accused persons fired indiscriminately at Yadav’s car, killing him, his driver and a passer-by. The assailants allegedly used an AK-47 rifle and other weapons in the incident.
Yadav had been elected MLA in 1993. Following his murder, his widow Vijma Yadav made an entry into politics and is today a sitting SP MLA from the Pratappur constituency. Vijma won her first election in 1996.
The Karwariya family has a long history of involvement in electoral politics and is also involved in sand mining.
Kapil Muni has also been accused of illegal mining. He was elected as a Lok Sabha MP on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket from Phulpur in 2009. The Phulpur assembly constituency, which falls under the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat, is one of the ten seats scheduled heading for by-elections soon.
Similarly, Suraj Bhan was an MLC during the BSP government.
Uday Bhan’s wife Neelam Karwariya was elected as an MLA on a BJP ticket from Meja in 2017. In 2022, however, she lost her seat.
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The BSP expelled Suraj Bhan and Kapil Muni in 2016 on charges of ‘hindering the growth’ of Brahmins in the party ahead of the 2017 assembly polls.
While convicting the Karwariya brothers in 2019 for murder, rioting and other charges, additional sessions judge Badri Vishal Pandey considered 18 prosecution witnesses and 156 defence witnesses.
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”.
Uday Bhan Karwariya was then out on a short-term bail for medical treatment following the court’s order in April 2022, which was extended from time to time. The high court declined to extend the short-term bail granted to him and directed him to immediately report back to the jail authorities.