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National

Supreme Court dismisses Abu Salem's plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a designated TADA court's decision to frame additional charges against alleged gangster Abu Salem for the 1993 Mumbai blasts in addition to the other grave charges for which he was extradited by the Portugal government.

A Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and Asok Kumar Ganguly dismissed Salem's plea that framing of the additional charges was in violation of the assurance given by the Indian government to Portugal that he shall not be tried for offences other than those for which is extradition was originally sought.

The apex court said the additional charges framed by the designated court in Mumbai were for “lesser offences,” which were subsumed in the main charges under Section 302 IPC (murder) and various other offences under the TADA, for which his extradition was obtained.

Salem was extradited from Portugal in 2005 on the basis of an undertaking given by India after the then Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah promised that he would not be awarded death penalty.

The Bench said there was no violation of the sovereign undertaking given by the Indian government at the time of extradition regarding any of the assurances regarding the punishment, if any.

The offences with which the appellant has been additionally charged are lesser than the offences for which the appellant has been extradited. To make it clear, the offences with which the appellant is charged are punishable with lesser punishment than the offence for which he has been extradited.

“The extradition granted in the present case had due regard to the facts placed which would cover the offences with which the appellant has been charged,” the Bench said.

Salem challenged the additional framing of charges on the ground that the extradition order of the Supreme Court of Justice, Portugal, did not include the offences which invite life imprisonment and imprisonment for 20 years. Under the agreement, Salem was extradited for offences of criminal conspiracy and murder (but not entailing death penalty as per the accord) besides various other offences.

The apex court said the designated judge had correctly concluded that Salem could be tried for ‘lesser offences' even if the same were not covered by the extradition decree since the same was permitted under Section 21(b) of the Extradition Act. — PTI

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