A former district president of Samajwadi Party, his wife and son have been sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a Bhadohi district and session’s court, which held them guilty in a dowry death case lodged in 1997.

“District and Sessions Judge Om Prakash Agarwal on Saturday sentenced former district SP president Jai Prakash Yadav, his wife Amrita Devi and son Vinod Yadav to seven years imprisonment each in the dowry death case. They were held guilty of killing Vinod’s wife Rekha in 1997,” said Rakesh Yadav, district government counsel, Bhadohi.

Rekha was niece of former Rashtriya Lok Dal MLA from Handia constituency in Allahabad, Brijbhan Yadav, who was also complainant in the case. It was alleged that the accused harassed Rekha for not fulfilling demands of dowry and subsequently killed her.

All three were out on bail and have been taken into custody, the government counsel said, adding they have been lodged at Gyanpur district jail in Bhadohi.

Earlier, then Samajwadi Party government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav had moved the district court in 2005 to withdraw the case on ground of “public interest”. The petition was rejected.

Jai Prakash (67) was Bhadohi district president of SP between 2002-05, but he was not active due to his health conditions, said party leader and incumbent district SP chief Arif Siddiqui.

According to complainant’s lawyer Tej Bahadur Yadav, the accused used to harass Rekha since after her marriage with Vinod in 1996. They were demanding car and other expensive items in dowry. Vinod had also allegedly written a letter to Rekha’s uncle Brijbhan stating that he had developed sour relations with his wife, the lawyer said.

As per the complaint, on the intervening night of August 3 and 4, 1997, Rekha was found dead in her husband’s house in Bhadohi town under mysterious circumstances. Police suspected it to be a case of poisoning and sent the body for postmortem. The police had mentioned in records that there was froth on victim’s mouth when the body was sent for autopsy.

Since autopsy report could not give opinion on cause of death, viscera was sent for lab test. After Rekha’s death, Brijbhan filed an FIR under IPC section 498-A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 304 B (dowry death) and also Dowry Prohibition Act at the Bhadohi Kotwali police station. He had then named Rekha’s husband Vinod and father in-law Jai Prakash and mother-in-law Amrita Devi.

The accused were arrested and sent to jail. They were later released on bail after about six months.