Don Salem drags Bhopal police to Portugal's top court

BHOPAL: Supreme Court of Portugal has sought status report on cases against Abu Salem from Supreme Court of India and TADA court Mumbai following a petition moved by the gangster alleging that he was being tried for a decade old double murder case by Bhopal police in violation of the extradition treaty.
Salem has also moved Madhya Pradesh high court seeking withdrawal of production warrant issued against him by Bhopal police in the same murder case.
The case was registered at Parvalia police station in 2002 in which Salem has been charged for hatching conspiracy. Four other accused in the case have been acquitted by the court in 2011.
Jabalpur bench of high court has asked state home ministry to submit a status report on the murder case registered at Parvalia police station in Bhopal before its next hearing on September 16.
"Salem is being tried at Bhopal in connection with murder of gangsters Akbar and Nafeez, which was not part of the treaty between Indian and Portugal. He was deported for trial in only nine cases, including his fake passport case at Bhopal," Salem's counsel Jitendra Soni told TOI.
Though Salem was extradited to face trials for only nine cases, Bhopal police has recently issued a production warrant against him in the old murder case.
Court has also been informed that Salem faces threat to his life in India as he was attacked in jail twice. "He was shot at by gangster Devendra Jagtap," said Soni, adding that a separate petition has been moved with Portugal Supreme Court with the complaint that the Indian government is not executing the order of sending Salem back to Portugal.
Salem, the prime accused in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, and his girlfriend Monica Bedi, were extradited to India on November 11, 2005, after a legal battle in Portugal that went on for three years. He was also wanted in the murder of film producer Gulshan Kumar. His extradition came after an assurance by Indian government to Portugal that he would not be given death penalty, a key requirement in extradition proceedings in Europe.
It was in December 2002 that government of India submitted a request for the extradition of Abu Salem in nine criminal cases (three cases of CBI, two cases of Mumbai Police and four cases of Delhi Police). The request was made relying upon the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings of which India and Portugal are signatories. The requisition was signed by the then minister of state for external affairs and was supported on facts with a detailed affidavit sworn by Om Prakash Chhatwal, the then senior superintendent of police, CBI/STF.
In January 2012, Portugal's Supreme Court had upheld an order, which cancelled extradition of Salem for violation of deportation rules by slapping charges that attracted death penalty.