Charges : 15 criminal cases, convicted only in one case, arrested.
Rajesh Ranjan, better known as Pappu Yadav, is an Indian politician. He won elections to the Lok Sabha in 1991, 1996, 1999, and in 2004 from several constituencies in Bihar on the RJD ticket. On 2008-02-14, he was convicted in the murder of Communist Party of India legislator Ajit Sarkar and sentenced to life. Subsequently he was debarred from the 2009 general election.
Ajit Sarkar was a firebrand CPI-M member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from Purnia and Katihar, and active in farmer politics. He had a long history of animosity with Pappu Yadav. On 1998-06-14, he was gunned down in broad daylight at Subhash Nagar in Purnia, along with his driver and a party worker. At that time, Pappu Yadav had left RJD. So, in 1999, Pappu Yadav was arrested for the murder. Eventually, the investigation was transferred from the Bihar Police to the CBI, who charged Pappu Yadav along with four others, for organizing the murder.
Pappu Yadav was jailed in Sikkim, but he used his political connections to turn Beur jail into his"fiefdom". There was considerable media attention on Yadav's conduct in Tihad jail, with the Indian Supreme Court investigating the alleged violation of prison rules. Yadav was accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of making about 640 calls from his mobile phone, many of them to prominent people. In January 2005, the Supreme Court of India ordered that phone jammers be installed in the jails to prevent inmates from using mobile phones.
Yadav was also accused of re-entering Beur Jail after he was released on official bail, and holding a party for the inmates of the jail. The main warden was suspended when the news of the event came to light. Eventually, in 2004, Yadav was transferred to Tihar Jail in Delhi.