SUSHIL SRIVASTAVA AKA BABA, THE MAFIA DON WHO DIDN’T WANT BAIL

Hazaribagh: His is a story of every gangster on reel – and many in real. A saga of passion, power, pelf… and, eventually, death.Sushil Srivastava, the 53-year-old Ramgarh don whose body was riddled with bullets by rivals in an audacious court shootout on Tuesday, was a farmer’s son in Chatra who braved hardships to graduate in commerce from a Ranchi college and fell in love with a girl whose family, unfortunately, didn’t practise the religion his did.When Sushil, then 24, told his father in remote Kupa village of Huntergunj block that he wanted to marry Meenu, a Christian girl from Hinoo, Ranchi, he was shown the door. Passion on their side, the young couple tied the knot and moved to Ranchi only to find themselves grappling with poverty.
In 1992, six years into marriage and saddled with the responsibility of three children, Sushil met a PWD engineer he once knew, seeking a job as a contractor in Ramgarh. The government official, Radheshyam Rajak, rudely spurned his request.After his arrest five years later, Sushil had told police that he never forgot the humiliation and that day was the turning point of his life.A poor and ambitious young man was all that then Ramgarh’s extortion kingpin Bhola Pandey was looking for in 1992. Sushil became his able lieutenant. Two years later, the youth avenged his humiliation by killing Rajak. Murders followed. So did money.By 1995, Sushil was rich, had his own group of loyalists and was ready to break free. He did, leaving mentor Bhola Pandey deeply antagonised. Two years down the line, the gangster landed in police net for killing an iron scrap dealer in Ramgarh and was sent to Hazaribagh central jail. His arrest did not arrest his operations, the prison serving as a safe house. His extortion business spread wings to Ranchi, Dhanbad and Bokaro.
According to sources in the jail, Sushil Srivastava was lodged in a high-security cell and had access to many facilities normally denied to an inmate, including mobile phones. The money his gang made outside also made their way to his prison cell and bought chicken meals and dry fruits for him.Srivastava is said to have inspired awe among members of his gang. They referred to him as “Baba” or father. So did many policemen who earned handsome tips from the “benevolent” gangster.”Baba also knew many politicians in Jharkhand as well as Bihar. They had a good relationship with him,” said a jail source, but refused to name anyone in particular.
In 2010, Srivastava orchestrated the killing of his erstwhile mentor Bhola Pandey, triggering a series of revenge killings by the latter’s nephew and heir Kishore Pandey. Last October, after losing 12 of his men, Srivastava struck back with vengeance. Kishore was gunned down in a crowded market in Jamshedpur.”Ever since Bhola Pandey was killed, Baba became edgy. He did not want bail. He said he felt safer here, inside the jail,” recalled a Hazaribagh prison staff, adding that Srivastava’s worst fears came true on Tuesday when the new boss of the Pandey gang, Vikas Tiwary, pumped eight bullets into his body from close range.
Hazaribagh jail superintendent Rupam Prasad denied special treatment to the gangster. “We followed the jail manual to the letter. He (Srivastava) spent his last days like any other prisoner here,” she said, also refuting claims that the gangster tipped his escorts and those who ran errands for him.Srivastava, who had embraced Christianity after his marriage, was on Wednesday laid to rest at a cemetery near the JSCA stadium in Dhurwa, Ranchi.
The family man gangster is survived by his widow, who stays in Doranda, Ranchi, and three children. His two sons study engineering in Pune and Bangalore while his only daughter is married to an engineer. The couple lives in Bangalore.