Abu Salem moves court, seeks to know tentative release date from jail
A TADA court has asked the CBI to respond to Abu Salem's plea about his release date after 23 years in prison for the 1993 Mumbai bombings.
MUMBAI: A special TADA court on Monday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to reply to a plea filed by Abu Salem Abdul Qayyum Ansari, a convict in the March 1993 Mumbai serial bombings case, seeking to know the tentative date of his release from jail.
The plea moved through advocate Farhana Shah, stated that he had already spent 23 years, 7 months and 28 days in incarceration, including available remission.
Salem, who had escaped to Portugal was extradited to India in 2005 after negotiations were drawn out between the Portuguese and Indian government regarding his imprisonment period. The Supreme Court in 2022 had also observed that the Indian government is bound to follow the commitment made to Portugal by not sentencing him to more than 25 years of imprisonment.
In his letter sent on July 20, Salem had asked the special public prosecutor and the superintendent of Nashik Central Prison, where he is lodged, to provide him with the details regarding the date of his release, after considering the total period of incarceration, including the actual period of imprisonment, pre-conviction incarceration and the remission available to him.
The plea was moved after he did not receive any response from the jail authorities on his queries. The prosecution and Nashik jail authorities sought time on Monday to file a reply to Salem’s plea. The matter will be taken up on October 17, when the prosecution and Nashik jail authorities are required to file their response.
In June this year, the special TADA court had allowed set-off to Salem, for the years he spent inside the prison during his trial in the 1993 bomb blast case. Salem was one of the convicts who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the special TADA court for his role in the March 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts, which took the lives of over 257 people and injured around 713 individuals.
The 1993 Bombay blast targeted various locations in Mumbai including the Bombay Stock Exchange, Kalbadevi, Shiv Sena Bhavan, Air India building at Nariman Point, Fishermen’s Colony in Mahim, Worli Century Bazar, Zaveri Bazar, Hotel Sea Rock in Bandra, among other places.