The Hindu : National : 'No split between Dawood, Abu Salem'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

National

National

'No split between Dawood, Abu Salem'

NEW DELHI, JULY 18. There has been no split in the D-company and underworld don and global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim is funding all the legal expenses of his companion in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, Abu Salem, lodged in a jail in Portugal.

The underworld was agog with rumours after Salem's arrest in Lisbon two years ago that there was a vertical split in the D-company and that Ibrahim was after Salem's life for "betrayal," CBI sources said.

The CBI had also started believing the rumours as Salem, during his extradition trial in Portugal, had pleaded that he wanted to hide in Lisbon because of his fear of Ibrahim, who was recently declared a "global terrorist" by the U.S. State Department.

However, following intensive interrogation of some of the underworld members, who had been deported from Dubai, CBI officials are of the opinion that the split between Dawood and Salem was stage-managed to divert police attention.

A deported D-company man revealed to the CBI that the entire legal funding of Salem in Portugal was being done by Ibrahim, the sources said.

Both Dawood and Salem are wanted by the CBI in connection with the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts which left 257 people dead and damaged property worth Rs. 30 crores.

PTI

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