By IANS,
New Delhi : Citing the precedent of cricketer-turned-parliamentarian Navjot Singh Sidhu, gangster Babloo Srivastava has moved the Supreme Court for suspension of his conviction in a murder case so that he can contest the forthcoming parliament elections.
Serving life term in an Uttar Pradesh jail for murdering a bureaucrat in 1993, Srivastava has moved the apex court for suspension of his conviction and said that he wanted to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha election from Lucknow.
Languishing in jail since August 1995, when he was extradited to India following his arrest in Singapore in April that year, Srivastava sought parity with Sidhu. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader’s conviction in a case of unintentional killing had been suspended by the apex court to facilitate him to fight a Lok Sabha election.
Presenting his political credentials in his lawsuit, which is likely to come up for hearing Monday, Srivastava said he earlier too had fought elections – once the Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow and once for a state assembly seat from Sitapur.
In his petition, he said he was in talks with various political parties, which wanted to field him as their candidate from the Uttar Pradesh capital.
He has also utilised his petition to refute the allegation that he was a close confidante of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who masterminded the 1993 serial terror bombing of Mumbai.
Srivastava said in his petition that if the Pakistan government accedes to India’s demand to hand over Dawood Ibrahim to it, he would have no problem in being sent to Pakistan, in exchange.
Srivatava too is one of the many names on Pakistan’s most wanted list handed over to India in exchange for India’s most-wanted list of 40-odd people, including Dawood Ibrahim, holed up in Pakistan.
An anti-terror court of Kanpur convicted Srivastava on charges of murdering an additional customs collector L.D. Arra, who was shot dead in Allahabad Cantonment area.
Srivastava was convicted on the basis of confessional statements by two of his accomplices, K.K. Saini and Manjit Singh, who accused him of plotting the murder. The two were arrested by Delhi Police in 2001.
In his petition, seeking suspension of his conviction, Srivastava said he has already moved the apex court challenging his conviction and stands a good chance of winning the case.
But he pleaded for suspension of his conviction and sentence for the time being, till the disposal of his main appeal against his conviction, to enable him fight the parliament election.