Surat police get custody of gangster Babloo Srivastava

A local court here today sent gangster Omprakash alias Babloo Srivastava to nine-day police custody in connection with a conspiracy to attack Afroz Fatta, an accused in a hawala racket case.

Additional Civil Judge A S Sheikh remanded Srivastava in police custody till September 15 though the Surat crime branch had sought a 14-day remand.

Prosecutor Nayan Sukhadwala argued that Srivastava had hatched the conspiracy though he had been lodged in jail and police wanted to find out identities of co-conspirators.

The gangster's lawyer said he had been falsely implicated in the case as he was in jail all along.
 

Srivastava was brought to Surat on Thursday from a prison in Bareiily in Uttar Pradesh with tight security.

Srivastava, cordoned by the policemen, was wearing a bullet-proof jacket when he was produced before the court. He allegedly faces threat to his life from Dawood Ibrahim gang.

On March 28, unidentified persons opened fire on a man here, mistaking him for Fatta. According to police, Srivastava was behind the attack.

One of the assailants, who was caught, said in his statement before the magistrate that Srivastava was the key conspirator.

At present, Srivastava is serving a life term for the 1993 murder of customs official L D Arora.

Fatta is an accused in a Rs 5,000-crore hawala racket busted by Enforcement Directorate earlier this year. He was later arrested (after the incident of firing). Police are probing who wanted to have him eliminated.