Ex-MLC's 'psycho killer' son nabbed after 10 years

Long arm of law

“I have killed three persons who gunned down my father. And I will kill the other three who were involved in my father’s killing, once I am out of the jail.”

This is precisely what Avinash Srivastava, son of a former legislator, told the police after he was apprehended here while planning to commit another crime.

More than 10 years after his father Lalan Shrivastava, a former MLC, was gunned down in the state Capital in 2002, his son Avinash alias Amit, was arrested by the Patna police for killing Pappu Khan, the key conspirator in the ex-legislator’s killing.
Avinash admitted before the police that in 2003 he pumped in 32 bullets into Pappu Khan alias Moin Khan after he came to know that Khan had killed his father.

Avinash, then in his mid-20s, killed two more persons with equal ease and fled to Delhi to pursue his masters in computer application (MCA) from Jamia Millia Islamia with no qualms. “Despite pursuing an MCA from Delhi, his criminal mindset never changed,” said Senior SP (SSP) of Patna, Manu Maharaj, adding that Avinash did not change the track, and re-entered the crime world after finishing his course in 2006. However, almost ten years after he first shot dead his father’s assailant, the Patna police apprehended him from a bypass area when he was planning a dacoity in Maharani Colony.

“Avinash appears to have turned into a psycho killer. Pumping 32 bullets into someone’s body shows the high level of frustration, which is also an indication of mental sickness,” a police officer, associated with his interrogation, said. “Besides, he still vows to kill more once he is released from the jail,” the cop added.

Although his mother and sister stay in Kankarbagh, Avinash stayed away from them as he was an active member of the underworld. “With his mind being dominated by the thought of revenge, he has entered into a situation where his thinking capacity is no more coherent.