
The Supreme Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to take a decision within two months in connection with the gangster Babloo Srivastava's plea seeking a direction for his premature release in a 1993 murder of an additional customs collector. He was serving a jail sentence of life imprisonment in the case.
Babloo, alias Om Prakash Srivastava, had knocked on the doors of the apex court after the UP government informed the SC that it had rejected his premature release in November last year. Srivastava sought the relief under Section 2 of the United Provinces Prisoners' Release on Probation Act, 1938 but the plea was rejected earlier by the UP government.
Srivastava has contended that he has served around 28 years in prison and has good conduct in jail, making him entitled to premature release as per the policy of the UP government.
A two-judge bench of the apex cout, led by Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice N Kotiswar Singh directed the state government to consider the plea within two weeks and inform it what decision it has taken in this regard.
While keeping in view the fact that the convict, Srivastava, already served a jail sentence of 28 years, the top court directed the UP government to consider his case for remission under section 473(1) of BNSS (Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita) at the earliest.
The top court also made it clear in its order that the concerned trial court should have to give its opinion within 15 days from the date of receipt of the remission plea.
It also directed the State to immediately forward the plea of Babloo seeking concurrence or otherwise of centre in 10 days. The Centre to decide the plea, in 4 days after that.
Earlier, in one of the hearings, the Aditional Advocate General (AAG) Garima Prasad told the SC that the gangster was convicted of serious offences, including those under the anti-terror law. "His petition for premature release has been dismissed by the competent authority which in this case is the office of governor on November 6," she had told the bench.
Prasad further contended that Srivastava has approached the court with "unclean hands" and has not disclosed the status of the petitions he has filed for premature release.
"He has been filing a petition for remission every now and then. His first petition was dismissed in 2016," she submitted.
The bench, in its order on November 8, had asked the counsel for Srivastava to file all the orders and case records of all the petitions he has filed till now.
Srivastava, who is currently lodged in Bareilly Central jail, had moved the apex court seeking direction to the state government for consideration of his plea for premature release. The latest petition, which was rejected on November 6, by the UP govt was filed on June 24, 2021.
The gangster was once an associate of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim but later became his enemy.
He was caught in Singapore by the investigating agencies and extradited to India in 1995. He was wanted in 42 cases, including murder and abduction.
On September 30, 2008, the gangster was sentenced to a life term by a special TADA court in Kanpur in connection with the 1993 murder of customs officer LD Arora in Allahabad.
The investigation of this case was given to the CBI. Initially, the don was lodged in Naini Central Jail and then on June 11, 1999, he was transferred to the Bareilly Central Jail. His appeal against the conviction was also dismissed by the Supreme Court.