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November 12, 2005
India: Salem's Lot - Suspected Muslim Terrorist To Face Trial
India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have finally achieved a result in a task which has taken them a decade of effort - the bringing back to India of Abu Salem to face trial. Abu Salem, according to New India Press is accused of the planning and execution of a series of bombings in Bombay (Mumbai) from March 1993, which killed 257 people and injured 1,400.
Salem, real name Abu Saleem Ansari, has been in Portugal, fighting his extradition for the past three years. He had been close to arrest on several occasions, but after being detained in Sharjah in October 2001, he escaped to Nairobi, taking with him his "moll", a former Bollywood starlet named Monica Bedi.
An office raid in 2002 on one of his gangland associates, Farzan, uncovered Salem's passports, as well as Bedi's three fake passports. The pair had travelled widely, for they bore visas from the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Canada and Britain. A passport was found which had had been issued in Lisbon for a man called "Ramesh Kumar", which had no details for father or mother, and aroused suspicion.
Working with police in Portugal, Salem and Monica Bedi were caught strolling through the Martim Momez shopping mall in Lisbon on Sept 17, 2002. Once arrested a legal battle ensued, and the pair were finally deported, after the Indian government gave assurances to the Portugese authorities that he would not face the death sentence. Salem arrived today, with Monica Bedi.
According to another article in New India Press, Salem faces over 70 charges against him, from rigging cricket matches, extortions, kidnappings, contract killings and the bombings from Mumbai.
He is accused of the murder of music producer Gulshan Kumar in 1997, attacking a Bollywood producer Rakiv Rai in 1997, murdering the secretary of actress Manisha Koirala in 2001, and threatening the actress, having his men attack three Bollywood producers, murdering two builders, and having his gang assault Muslim actors and technicians who worked on the epic TV series Mahabharata which portrayed a Hindu saga.
Abu Salem started life in a poor family in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh and drove a taxi in Delhi before he befriended gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Soon Salem had become a fireams expert, gangster, murderer, extortionist, and terrorist.
At Salem's court appearance on Friday, where he was charged under Section 3 of the Terrorist and DIsruptive Activities Act and under 120 B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, he appeared pale and tired. Security was tight at the court, which was held in Arthur Road jail, with more than a hundred police and State Reserve Police on guard. Judge P.D. Koda allowed Salem to speak to Monica, and granted a 12 day custody notice on Salem, for him to reappear on November 23.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 12, 2005 10:30 AM
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