Abu Salem's escape

IT IS DISTRESSING that one of the most notorious figures of Mumbai's underworld has been permitted to escape after being detained, possibly as a result of official bungling. Suspected contract killer of audio business magnate Gulshan Kumar, one-time associate of mafia don Dawood Ibrahim, accused number 87 in the Mumbai serial bomb blasts - Abu Salem's life reads like a veritable list of infamy. The exact circumstances which attended his arrest by the Sharjah police and his subsequent release are not clear. But the Indian Government, which has been seeking the extradition of Salem against whom an Interpol red corner notice has been issued, has clearly been left feeling extremely helpless and embarrassed. The truth about reports that he was let off because of the Centre's inability to furnish the bona fide records needed to establish that the detained person was indeed Abu Salem must be verified and made public. News about his release has been followed by an almost comical buck-passing among authorities with everyone blaming everyone else for the fiasco. The Union Home Ministry believes that the Maharashtra Government upset the applecart by going public with the news about Salem's arrest. Inspired leaks blame the Regional Passport Office at Lucknow for failing to provide the records of Salem's passport details in time. And some quarters hold the CBI responsible for not providing details of Salem's identity quickly enough.

Whatever the truth, it is perhaps simplistic to believe that Salem's detention would have inevitably resulted in his extradition. The Centre appears less than happy over the manner in which the UAE Government, with which India has an extradition treaty, has handled this issue. Given the existence of a red corner notice against Salem, couldn't the authorities in Sharjah have held on to him a little longer rather than allowing him to get away? India has learnt - and in the hard way - that extradition treaties rarely result in extradition. Last year, the infamous gangster Chhota Rajan managed to escape after being arrested by the police in Thailand even as New Delhi was pressing Bangkok for his extradition. Attempts by the Mumbai police to extradite Naidam Saifee, who allegedly hired Abu Salem to kill Gulshan Kumar, came to naught when a London court blocked the attempt. The reasons why extradition proceedings often fail are varied but, as India has learnt to its cost, they sometimes suffer because of non-cooperative Governments and the presence of complicated legal procedures.

Ironically, it was only earlier this month that a high-level police team had visited countries in the Gulf to seek the extradition of a number of wanted criminals. Clearly, the current extradition processes are much too cumbersome and time-consuming; law-enforcing authorities in India have a point when they argue that these procedures be streamlined and refashioned in a manner which make them more effective. In the meantime, New Delhi can only rue the fact that Salem has escaped being brought back to India. All the more because he has been extremely active in recent times, having unleashed a reign of terror in Mumbai's film industry. There is evidence which suggests he has amassed large quantities of wealth by forcing Hindi film producers to sell the overseas rights of their films to his front companies. The murder of a personal assistant to a well-known film actress a few months ago is widely believed to have been the handiwork of his men. Salem had managed to upstage a couple of his gangland rivals to establish a stranglehold on Bollywood through a mixture of threat and extortion. This is why the release of this dreaded don is particularly irksome and troubling. In the long list of criminals that have flown India and sought refuge abroad, this is one person that New Delhi would have loved to have brought back and sent to justice.

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