Babloo acquittal: Don always ahead of investigators

Lucknow, Feb 23 (UNI) With the Delhi High Court acquitting UP underworld don Babloo Srivastava and his close associat Nitin Gunwant Shah, a Mumbai-based businessman, in Lalit Suneja murder case, the don has shown he is ahead of the investigators.

Policemen here admit Babloo's underworld tactics played a significant role in rendering the police helpless in collecting concrete evidence.

In July last year, a Delhi court had sentenced Babloo and Shah to life imprisonment for killing Suneja, a Delhi-based businessman, in 1992.

Reversing the trial court judgement, a division bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin yesterday acquitted Babloo and Shah saying ''there is nothing on record to establish the two of them had any links in the murder case.'' Earlier too, another don Mukhtar Ansari was acquitted in the case of sensational kidnapping and subsequent killing of Varanasi-based businessman Nand Lal Rungta.

The CBI had made rigorous efforts for Babloo's extradition from Singapore on August 30,1995. Babloo was caught there in possession of a fake passport which identified him as a Nepalese national Arun Kumar Agrawal. The passport was issued from the External Affairs office in Kathmandu.

The Singapore authorities caught Babloo following a tip-off then.

But, they were not ready to accept CBI theory that the man caught was India's wanted don Babloo Srivastava.

The Government had to intervene and seek the Nepal government's assistance in providing corroborative details revealing Arun Agrawal was none other than Babloo Srivastava.

While court proceedings in 33 cases against Babloo were in progress, the don had reportedly been engaged in orchestrating kidnappings, contract killings, cricket betting and extortion from behind the bars in the jails of Naini and Bareilly. Besides, he got acquittal in two of the four significant cases referred to by the CBI to the Singaporean authorities during extradition.

The four cases were: Lalit Suneja murder case in Delhi, Custom Commissioner LD Arora murder in Allahabad, country's builder VN Mittal kidnap attempt case in Mumbai and contractor Ram Pratap's murder case in Lucknow. Babloo has been acquitted in the Suneja and Ram Pratap murder cases.

Babloo, a one-time associate of Dawood Ibrahim, has also penned a book on his experiencess in the crime world.

The don-turned-writer ran his national crime network which ranged from cricket-based 'satta' to abductions from Allahabad's Naini jail.

He contested the 2002 Assembly elections and last Lok Sabha polls from Sitapur, but lost both. Nevertheless, he hopes to stage a political comeback.

UNI