Date:02/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/02/stories/2008100261802100.htm

National

Babloo Srivastava sentenced to life for murder

Kanpur: Underworld don Babloo Srivastava and two others were sentenced to life imprisonment by a TADA court here on Tuesday for murdering a senior Customs official 15 years back.

In its 101-page judgment, the court also slapped a fine of Rs. 10,000 each on Om Prakash Srivastava alias Babloo Srivastava and his associates K.K. Saini and Manjeet Singh alias Mange for hatching a criminal conspiracy and murdering Additional Customs Collector L.D. Arora on March 24, 1993.

CBI counsel Y.K. Saxena, who had sought death penalty for the convicts, said Babloo had provided a car and a pistol to his two aides to execute the murder.

The victim was killed during his posting in Mumbai as he had allegedly angered the underworld, the CBI said.

A CBI probe found that Arora, an officer of the 1977 Indian Revenue Service batch, was posted as Additional Collector (Preventive) Rummaging and Intelligence, Mumbai, and had contributed to a record seizure of contraband worth more than Rs. 250 crore on account of his intelligence network.

Even after his transfer to Allahabad in May 1992, he continued his contacts with the informers in Mumbai and got some more seizures effected.

He was to visit Bombay on March 25, 1993 when he was killed. — PTI