SC: Govt bound to not extend Abu Salem jail term

Abu Salem, who was extradited to India on November 11, 2005, was tried by the courts in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts

And the murder of businessman Pradeep Jain in 1995. In both cases, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Abu Salem, a member of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s syndicate was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2015 by a special TADA court for killing Mumbai-based builder Pradeep Jain in 1995 (PTI)

The Supreme Court on Monday said that Centre was bound to release gangster Abu Salem in 2030, on completion of his 25 years sentence in India.

To honour a solemn assurance given by the Indian government to a Portuguese court in December 2002.

At the time of his extradition proceedings in 2002, then deputy prime minister and home minister LK Advani had given solemn assurance to the Portugal government that Salem would neither be hanged nor would be sentenced to a jail term exceeding 25 years

The issue, however, got complicated in recent years, with the Union government and the Central Bureau of Investigation trying to make the fine point.

That the assurance was on execution and imprisonment beyond 25 years, not whether an Indian court would sentence Salem to a period exceeding 25 years