Fall of D-Company’s trusted driver Salem
has alleged violation of extradition conditions comes into the picture only if the Indian government deliberately suppressed facts and cases known to them before. “If the government found new evidence against the accused after the extradition, the accused would be tried under fresh material under the Indian law and procedure of Indian judiciary. This cannot be a violation,” Aney said.
Senior counsel Ashok Mundargi said imprisonment for life is not a violation as such, because according to the treaty, Salem was not given capital punishment as Portugal had abolished death penalty in their country. “Under the criminal procedure code, though the imprisonment for life is for the entire life of the convict, the jail manual provides for various categories for imprisonment for life. The categories start from imprisonment for 14 years and goes above, but not till death,” Mundargi said. It is the jail authorities that decide which category the convict falls under and it is for the state, or in case of the 1993 blasts, the Centre to take a decision. Mundargi said in case of a breach, the only consequence would be that Portugal would consider the aspects before honouring any further requests.
Extradited gangster Abu Salem was on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
Much before he delivered a consignment of arms and explosives at actor Sanjay Dutt’s house in the run-up to the March 12, 1993, blasts, Abu Salem went by the name Abu Samaan in Dawood Ibrahim’s gang, often called the D-Company.
He got the name because of his good driving skills that ensured many of the gang’s consignments of contraband (referred to as saaman) reach their destination in time. He was thus the natural choice when it came to carrying the consignment of hand grenades and assault rifles from Gujarat to Mumbai in January 1993.
He did not disappoint Anees Ibrahim, Dawood’s younger brother and second-in-command, in the gang. The consignment successfully reached the garage at Dutt’s Pali Hill home.
Retired ACP Shankar Kamble, who was a key member of the Mumbai crime branch team that investigated the case, remembers that Salem never figured in the underworld criminal dossier, neither was he a suspect in the serial blasts even a month after the police unravelled the plot.
It was at the height of the investigation in the third week of April 1993 that the crime branch picked up some D-Company members. The source of some confiscated Kalashnikovs and hand grenades was still to be known, though police had a fair idea about how RDX found its way into the city.
One of the gangsters spilled the beans about Dawood aide Baba Chouhan. “Chouhan’s family ran a motor driving training school, while he was involved in smuggling,” Kamble said. It became evident that a large consignment of arms and explosives was carried into the city from Gujarat in a van. The disclosure not only nailed Dutt, but driver Salem.