DP Yadav became a bootlegger and entered the illegal country liquor trade as a protégé of ex-MLA of
Dadri Mahendra Singh Bhati in the late 1970s. Yadav was then the Block Pramukh (village council chief) of
Bisrakh in
Ghaziabad (now in Noida). The first criminal charge against Yadav was registered in 1979 in the Kavi Nagar police station of
Ghaziabad. He has been charged in nine murder cases, three cases of attempted murder, two cases of
dacoity, many cases of kidnapping for extortion, as well as various crimes under the Excise Act, Gangsters' Act, and even the
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act. The cases were filed in the districts of Ghaziabad,
Bulandshahr,
Moradabad,
Badayun, in western Uttar Pradesh, and in
Jind and
Sirsa districts in
Haryana. In one of the cases filed against him in Haryana in the early 1990s, illicit liquor supplied by him was responsible for the deaths of 350 people. and was imprisoned in Dehradun jail. On 10 November 2021,
Uttarakhand High Court acquitted him due to lack of evidence in the murder of former
Dadri MLA Mahendra Bhati. As per his 2014
Lok Sabha election affidavit he has 5 serious criminal cases against him including murder, attempt-to-murder and extortion cases. In the same affidavit he has mentioned that he has assets worth
₹59.51
crores and liabilities worth
₹8.78 crores. == Positions held ==