Babloo to appear before Delhi court in MCOCA case

Underworld don Bablu Srivastava will be produced before a Delhi court today as his 20 days police custody in a MCOCA case for allegedly running an extortion racket in the national capital during 1983-97, ended today.

New Delhi, Aug 17 : Underworld don Bablu Srivastava will be produced before a Delhi court today as his 20 days police custody in a MCOCA case for allegedly running an extortion racket in the national capital during 1983-97, ended today.

Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur had allowed the plea of special cell of Delhi police that it required to interrogate Srivastava to unravel the extortion nexus and ordered it to produce him in court today.

The court on July 25 had issued a production warrant against the don.

The special cell of Delhi Police had lodged an FIR under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) against Srivastava and his associate Fazal-ur-Rahman on December 29 last year.

The police had alleged that they were running an extortion racket in the capital during the period 1983-97.

The court rejected Babloo`s plea that he should not be handed over to the Delhi Police as it was against the undertaking given by the centre to Singapore authorities at the time of his extradition in 1995.

Srivastava was extradited on the ground of his involvement in four criminal cases excluding the present Mococa case, his counsel claimed.

Rejecting the contention, the court said, "the supreme court had not granted any stay while deciding your petition in which you had alleged that you cannot be arrested in the present case."

However, Babloo`s counsel, citing the extradition treaty, said Srivastava can be sent to Mumbai in connection with the trial of an extortion case there but his custody should not be given to the Delhi Police.

The court rejected the contention.

The Delhi High Court had declined to grant stay on the order to arrest the underworld don in connection with the case.

The Delhi High Court had in February acquitted Srivastava, who was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Suneja, a Delhi-based businessman, by a lower court.

Srivastava's co-accused, businessman Nitin Shah, was also given a life term for the murder, which was carried out over a payment dispute.

Suneja was shot dead by Manjit Singh and Virender Pant, members of Babloo's gang, on August 2, 1992 , as he was returning to his Shakarpur residence from a nearby temple.

ANI