Lucknow The Uttar Pradesh government had increased the reward for the arrest of UP’s most stylish mafioso Badan Singh alias Baddo (known for his luxurious life style) from ₹2.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh, senior police officials said on Friday.
The officials said UP’s director general of police (DGP) RK Vishwakarma sent the proposal to the state government on May 6, following the home department issued government order dated May 25 (Thursday) for approval. They said Baddo escaped from police custody in a Meerut hotel over four years ago after drugging police personnel.
HT has the copy of the government order issued by the home department in this regard.
Baddo known for his lavish life style
A senior police official said Baddo was considered a stylish mafioso as he always dressed smartly and wore shoes, watches and clothes of world’s top brands.. He also had several super luxury vehicles in his motorcade and a sprawling bungalow in Meerut. He also owned several foreign-made firearms and expensive dog breeds.
A senior police official said Baddo had been missing along with his son Sikandar since March 2019 and was said to be living abroad. He said Sikandar also carried a reward of ₹25,000 on his arrest. Baddo’s last location was tracked somewhere in Paris and also in The Netherlands, Australia and England in the past. Several controversial things were also posted from his social media accounts in the recent past, he added.
Jumped custody after getting life term
He said Baddo was first convicted by a Meerut court in 2017 in a case related to the murder of a lawyer Ravindra Pal Singh and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He said Baddo was arrested and lodged in Farrukhabad Central Jail after he was sentenced but he escaped while cops were bringing him back to jail after his appearance in another case in a Ghaziabad court via Meerut on March 28, 2019.
“Interestingly, he convinced the six police personnel deployed to escort him back to jail to halt in a Meerut hotel, where he drugged them and escaped. On the same day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had his political rally in Meerut and most of the police force was deployed in the rally. Senior police authorities came to know about his escape only after the PM’s departure from Meerut,” said a Meerut police official.
Background and criminal history
The cop said Baddo’s family basically hailed from Punjab and his father shifted to Berapur village of Meerut in 1970. He said Baddo was youngest among seven siblings and worked as a truck driver before entering the crime world. He said Baddo first entered into liquor smuggling from other states and gradually earned huge wealth through it.
“The first criminal case was lodged against him in 1988 when he killed a man identified as Raj Kumar in a land dispute in Meerut. He was first arrested in the same year along with firearms but was later bailed out in the case after remaining in jail for some months. He allegedly shot dead a man named Prakash in 1994 and the lawyer Rajendra Pal in 1996 in which case he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was also accused in the murder of Meerut Zila Panchayat member Sanjay Gurjar in 2011 and a cable network operator in 2012,” the cop said.