Bindi Yadav: From ‘bicycle thief’ to super-rich businessman

There was a time in the 1980s when Bindi was a “petty criminal” in Gaya, “caught for stealing a bicycle”, as locals recount. He was a small fry in the criminal ecosystem of the Bihar town. 

But Bindi seemingly aimed to make it big. So, in the early 1990s, he teamed up with another goon, Bachchu, to indulge in various crimes in Gaya over a period of three years. The duo, known locally as Bindia-Bachua, spared no one who crossed their path.

They gained notoriety by grabbing prime properties and land in Gaya. Their guns did the talking and the region reeled under the shadow of fear. 

That was the time when Lalu Prasad Yadav was at the helm of the Bihar government. Crime flourished in the state, powered by dreaded criminals such as Surendra Yadav, Rajendra Yadav and Maheshwar Yadav. Bindi and Bachchu joined the bandwagon.

Their brutal ways, however, forced the government to take action: officers known to be ‘strict’ were deputed as the district magistrate and SP in Gaya. They invoked the stringent Control of Crimes Act to tame Bindi and Bachchu.

That was the catalyst for Bindi to realise that he would require political backing to survive. In the late 1990s, he joined Lalu Prasad’s outfit, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). With that, he began a journey to transform himself from a criminal to a politician.

With the RJD’s support, Bindi was elected unopposed as the chairman of Gaya District Board in 2001. He held that position till 2006.

In the meantime, he tried his luck at the hustings in 2005 as an Independent candidate from Gaya (rural), as he was denied an RJD ticket for the Assembly election. But he failed to garner enough votes to make it to the assembly.

He unsuccessfully contested the assembly election again in 2010 from Gurua, this time on the RJD ticket. In his affidavit, he had declared 18 criminal cases against him. 

So, after Nitish Kumar came to power in 2010, Bindi switched his loyalties to the JD-U. But the image-conscious Chief Minister was averse to backing a criminal.

In 2011, when Bindi was arrested, he was found to be in possession of an AK-47 rifle and over 4,000 cartridges. The bicycle thief changed his ways after this. Today, Bindi owns malls, hotels, 15 petrol pumps in Gaya, Bodh Gaya, Delhi and adjoining areas. He has business interests in sectors as diverse as road, construction and liquor.

No wonder then that his son Rocky drove an SUV worth Rs.1.5 crore and brandished an Italian-made .32 bore pistol with which Aditya was killed.