The Hindu : Abu Salem held in Lisbon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 21, 2002

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Abu Salem held in Lisbon

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI SEPT. 20. The underworld don and an accused in the 1993 Bombay serial blasts case, Abu Salem, has been detained in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.

The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, expressed the hope that Salem would be deported to India. He said a CBI team could be sent to Lisbon to try and bring the don back.

To secure the deportation, Mr. Advani told reporters, India may assure the Portuguese Government that Salem would not be sentenced to death in India.

While official confirmation of Salem's detention by the Interpol in Lisbon was yet to come, highly placed intelligence sources said he had been detained as a Red Corner Alert notice was pending against him for long.

It is learnt that the Bollywood actress, Monica Bedi, was with Salem at the time of the arrest on Wednesday. Ms. Bedi used to frequent Lisbon to meet him though she is believed to be living in Norway. She recently gave the slip to the Delhi police from a five-star hotel.

Abu Salem has eluded the police many times and his detention in Dubai served no purpose as India had failed to conclusively prove and establish his identity beyond doubt.

The goof-up, it was said, had occurred as his passport details could not be furnished in time. Belonging to Azamgarh in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Salem had also been active in Bhopal before shifting to Mumbai in the Eighties.

A hawker-turned petty criminal, Salem joined the mafia don, Dawood Ibrahim, and had been his close associate for a number of years before falling out.

Sources said that Salem was at odds with Dawood's brother, Anees Ibrahim, and had parted ways with the Dawood-Anees-Chhota Shakeel trio.

Wanted by the Mumbai police in a number of murder and extortion cases, Salem was declared a proclaimed offender. He is also allegedly instrumental in the conspiracy behind the murder of the audio king, Gulshan Kumar, in Mumbai about three years ago.

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