A blatant example would be the fielding of Mitrasen Yadav from Faizabad. He holds the dubious distinction of being a murder convict who was sentenced to life term, but escaped punishment because of a gubernatorial pardon.

Even after the pardon, Mitrasen Yadav was involved in numerous criminal cases, eight of which are still pending. One of the cases, where he was allegedly involved in the murder of a policeman, was withdrawn by the government on the initiative of Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Yadav's criminal career, spanning over four decades, began when he was named in the sensational murder of two brothers, Jata Shankar Tiwari and Surendra Tiwari, in 1964. Mitrasen, then a communist, and seven others were sentenced to life term by the Faizabad session court in 1966.

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court rejected his appeal. For three years, Mitrasen stayed behind bars before the Governor ordered his release on mercy on October 7, 1972, on condition that he would not indulge in crime for seven years.

But Yadav did not stay away from crime for long. In 2000, the then Faizabad District Magistrate Navneet Sehgal wrote to the Principal Secretary (Prisons), mentioning that Yadav had violated the undertaking, but no action was taken against him.

In 1985, Mitrasen was allegedly involved in the conspiracy of murder of Mohan Das Rai, Station Officer of Inayatnagar police station. Rai was attacked with sharp-edged weapons on the day of polling for the Assembly election and died while being taken to Lucknow for treatment.

Yadav and his accomplices remained behind bars for almost 12 months. After 10 years, the state government withdrew the case, said Mitrasen Yadav's lawyer Vipin Tiwari. Mulayam Singh Yadav, the then chief minister, had taken the initiative.

Yadav is also an accused in the sensational murder of BSP worker Bhawani Pher Yadav. "The trial of that case has been stayed on the directive of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court," said advocate Syed Khan, who is contesting the case against Yadav.

Yadav has also been accused of threatening and forcing witnesses of Bhawani Pher murder case to get hostile. Cases of forgery and extortion are also pending against him. 

Recently, Yogendra Prasad, father of slain law student Shashi, filed a police complaint against Yadav and others, accusing them with threatening him to withdraw the case he had lodged against Yadav and his son Anandsen for the murder of his daughter.

Mitrasen Yadav's lawyer Avadesh Yadav says three cases against his clients are pending in courts, while in rest he has been aquitted or the trial has been stayed.

Yadav claims all cases against him were lodged under political pressure.

"One of the government officials deliberately lodged fake cases against me. The police filed the final report in most of them. Currently, around eight cases are pending against me and they are all politically motivated."

Samajwadi Party secretary Shivpal Yadav has a simple defence for his party's decision to field Mitrasen: "He is around 75 years old now. How can he be involved in criminal cases at such an age?"

Faizabad Superintendent of Police RKS Rathor said: "I don't know much about his pending cases, but it is true he has not been convicted in any other case".

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