Babloo gets life sentence

NEW DELHI: A city court on Monday sentenced former Dawood aide underworld don Babloo Srivastava and co-accused Nitin Shah to life imprisonment for murdering a city-based businessman in 1992. Babloo and Mumbai-based businessman Shah were held guilty of hatching a conspiracy to murder Lalit Suneja, the slain businessman.

Additional Sessions Judge of a fast track court, Rajender Kumar, held Srivastava and Shah guilty under Sec 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder) of the IPC for the murder of Suneja. The court also imposed a fine of Rs20,000 each on them.

The duo had hatched the conspiracy to kill Suneja over a business dispute with Shah. According to the police, Shah had hired Babloo to kill Suneja. Babloo in turn hired two shooters who shot Sunjea from point blank range at his east Delhi home in 1992. Though the two shooters, Virender Pant and Manish Dikshit, were also charged in the case, both died during the trial. While Pant died of TB, Dikshit died in a gun battle with the police.

Srivastava was arrested by the Interpol in 1995 and extradited from Singapore. Of the 32 criminal cases listed against him, he has been acquitted in 24 so far. The crimes allegedly committed by him include murder, extortion and kidnapping.

Babloo however appeared unfazed after the order and said he would appeal to the high court. “There is no witness in this case. The case has been going on for 11 years and out of 32 witnesses, 31 are in my favour. They have punished me on a policeman’s testimony. I will definitely appeal in high court,” he said.