Unfulfilled Dream: Babloo Srivastava. File picture

Lucknow, Sept. 30: A court has made sure that gangster Babloo Srivastava’s life remains true to the title of his autobiography — Adhura Khwab (Unfulfilled Dream).

The gangster has been sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case, dashing his dream — some say ploy — of getting married to a “long-time girlfriend”.

Although the “unfulfilled dream” in his book refers to his inability to tackle Dawood Ibrahim’s D-company, the 43-year-old don-turned-politician-turned-writer had been claiming to be desperate to marry since March 2006.

Om Prakash Srivastava alias Babloo, a former member of the Dawood gang, had refused to reveal the identity of his “long-time girlfriend” but had told this correspondent: “She used to study law in Lucknow and was in my class.”

Babloo had hoped to get bail on the ground that he wanted to tie the knot. But the ploy did not work.

Charles Sobhraj will probably sympathise with Babloo. The serial killer, lodged for life in a Kathmandu jail, has been trying in vain to take the marriage route to freedom. The 64-year-old Sobhraj, dubbed the bikini killer, wants to settle down with a 20-year-old.

Babloo was held guilty of the murder of an assistant customs collector in 1993. His associates, Kamal Kishore Saini and Manjit Singh, were also given life terms and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 each.

The don’s road to the altar has been riddled with several murder charges. But he steered past all of them only to stumble at this one.

When Babloo was deported from Singapore in August 1995, he was to stand trial in four cases. He was acquitted in two — both murder — and was granted bail in the third, a kidnapping case.

Babloo proved to be fourth time unlucky when special judge Subhas Chandra pronounced the sentences today. The accused were present in court.

Assistant customs collector L.D. Arora was shot dead near his Circular Road residence in Allahabad on March 24, 1993. According to the prosecution, the conspiracy was hatched by Babloo and executed by Singh, alias Mange Sardar, and Saini.

Arora is believed to have run into trouble with Babloo when he was posted at Mumbai airport.

Sardar was arrested from Calcutta in 1998 after an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh special task force, in which three persons were killed. Saini was caught three years later.

The three were convicted under Sections 302 (murder), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

The verdict has also dealt a blow to Babloo’s political ambitions. He was planning to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Babloo had fought the 2004 elections from Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, on an Apna Dal ticket but lost.

A graduate from Lucknow University, Babloo is currently lodged in Bareilly Central Jail.

In his autobiography, Babloo, who joined D-company’s breakaway faction headed by Chhota Rajan, had lamented his failure to eliminate Dawood’s men in 2005.