Kanpur, Dec 8 : Gangster-turned-politician Anupam Dubey has been sentenced to life imprisonment by additional district judge (8) Ram Avtar Prasad for the murder of Ram Nivas Yadav, an inspector in the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), 27 years ago. The court verdict came on Thursday. The charges against Dubey in this case could be framed after 23 years as he did not appear in court even once. The trial began in 2021, after he surrendered in another case and went to jail, said Dilip Awasthi, district government counsel, adding that the police and prosecution worked in tandem to secure conviction of such a dreaded criminal. A BSP leader, Dubey is currently lodged in the Mathura jail and has 67 criminal cases against him. On May 14 1996, Ram Nivas Yadav was shot dead in the train compartment soon after he boarded a train at Anwarganj railway station. He was then posted in Farrukhabad. The CB-CID that investigated the case charged three people, including Dubey, with this murder. Two of the accused, dreaded criminal Nem Kumar Billaya and Kaushal died during trial. Both of them were killed in shoot-out with the police separately. Anupam Dubey never appeared in this case. As a result, the chief metropolitan magistrate Kanpur had issued orders to seize his property in 2021. Later that year, he surrendered in another case and went to jail. Additional district government counsel Arvind Dimri said in total 22 witnesses appeared during the trial. As many as 18 were from the prosecution and four testified as court witnesses. The testimony of an eyewitness Harpal Singh who was in the compartment at the time of the murder proved crucial. Last month, Dubey's palatial hotel was razed in Farrukhabad district as it was built illegally on a pond, apart from seizure of his properties valued at Rs 80 crore, as part of the ongoing crackdown on mafia. The action against him was begun by the then ADG Kanpur zone Bhanu Bhaskar after Inspector's family came to seek justice in this case. /IANS