L.D. Arora Murder Case

L.D. Arora, a senior officer of the Customs Department, was shot dead in 1993, at point blank range, while getting out of his car in front of his residence in the Allahabad town of Uttar Pradesh. He had just returned from his office. The unknown assailant had been waiting for him under the stair case of the multi¬ storeyed building in which Arora lived. The Uttar Pradesh Police could not get a breakthrough. The case ultimately came to CBI. Investigation started from Bombay where the deceased was posted for a long time and had come down heavily on a number of smuggling gangs, including that of notorious smugglers Md. Dosa, Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim. His general reputation and family life were also found to be good, therefore it seemed that the killing was committed due to professional reasons. Arora had been threatened by the smugglers in the past. Even after his transfer from Bombay to Allahabad, he was running his sources and passing on information to his counter-parts in Bombay, resulting in large scale seizures of contraband. A suspect telephone number of a neighbouring country and scrutiny of the telephone print out revealed that several calls had been made to several numbers in Bombay and Delhi. Subscribers of the called numers were questioned and one in Delhi disclosed that he was being called by notorious criminal Om Prakash Srivastava from abroad. When questioned about his relationship with Babloo, he disclosed that Babloo was his neighbour, living in a rented house, about a year back and had absconded after a murder case (not Arora murder case). The Delhi Police records were checked and it was found that Babloo was suspected in that murder case. It was also found that Babloo was a contract killer and smuggler. This made him a strong suspect. Invesigation also disclosed that Babloo had repeatedly called a hotel number in Allahabad, several time
on the days proceeding Arora's murder and also on the day of the murder. The hotel register disclosed that some of his associates had stayed in that hotel and received calls from Babloo. Babloo's associates had given correct names in the hotel records but wrong addresses. However, on further verification the names and addresses of the suspects were confirned. The shooter was caught in Delhi and his disclosure revealed that Babloo had organised this killing on the instructions of smuggler Md. Dosa from Dubai. He also disclosed how the conspiracy was planned, how the transport and arms were provided by Babloo and his associates, and how Arora was eliminated. The car involved in the crime was seized. He got Rs. 1.00 lac for the killing and Babloo got 15.00 lacs from Md. Dosa. Arrest warrants were taken from the Court and Interpol alerted.

In 1995, information was received that Babloo was travellng to Singapore from Dubai on a Nepalese passport. Interpol Singapore, was alerted and they detained Babloo at the airport. On being informed of this development, Indian officials flew to Singapore and submitted the arrest warrant and other relevant documents in the Court. The disconcerting aspect of this case was that Babloo was travelling under an assumed name on a genuine Nepalese passport. During questioning by the Singapore Police, he pretended that he was not the person wanted by CBI. It was necessary not only to establish a prima facie case in the Extradition Court at Singapore but also to firmly establish his identity. Indian officials persuaded his elder brother to swear an affidavit to prove his identity and fingerprints from Singapore and India were matched. The Extradition Magistrate held that there was a prima facie case against Babloo in all the court cases. He was extradited to India in August 1995 and is facing trial now. This was the first extradition case in 45 years.