SC gives two months to UP to take call on gangster’s release

The Supreme Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh Government to take a decision in two months on the premature release plea of gangster Om Prakash Srivastava alias Babloo Srivastava who is serving life term in the 1993 murder of an additional customs collector.

In his plea filed under Section 2 of the United Provinces Prisoners’ Release on Probation Act, 1938, Srivastava contended that he had served around 28 years in prison and had good conduct in jail, making him entitled to premature release in terms of the UP Government policy on premature release of prisoners.

Earlier, the government had turned down his plea for premature release on November 6, 2024. A Bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice N Kotiswar Singh directed the state to consider Babloo’s plea in two weeks and inform it of the decision taken in view the fact that the petitioner convict had already spent 28 years in jail.

It directed the government to consider Babloo’s plea for remission under section 473(1) of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) at the earliest. The Bench made it clear the trial court has to give its opinion in 15 days from the date of receipt of the remission plea and the state should immediately forward it to the Centre for its concurrence or otherwise in 10 days. The Centre had to decide the plea in four days thereafter, it added.

Currently lodged in Bareilly Central jail, Srivastava had moved the top court for a direction to UP to consider his plea. An associate-turned enemy of Mumbai underworld don and fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, Srivastava was caught in Singapore by the investigating agencies and extradited to India in 1995. He was wanted in 42 cases, including those of murder and abduction.