Extradited gangster Abu Salem’s application seeking a 45-day parole to get married has been rejected. This is the second time that Salem’s plea for a parole to get married has been rejected.
Salem is currently serving a life term in Taloja prison for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts that killed 257 people, injured 713 others and damaged property worth ₹27 crore.
Konkan Divisional Commissioner Jagdish Patil rejected the application four days ago on grounds of security after seeking a report from the Thane Police Commissionerate. Sadanand Gaikwad, Superintendent of Taloja Jail, said Mr. Patil rejected Salem’s plea as he is convicted in serious offences.
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Mr. Patil said, “The cases for which Salem is convicted does not fit into the parole rules notification, which was amended in August 2016. In my tenure, which is from June 2017, this is the first parole request from him. He can appeal to the State Home Department and later at the High Court. As of now, I am not aware if Salem has sent in an appeal.”
Salem is reportedly planning to tie the knot, for the third time, with Sayed Bahar Kausar, a resident of Mumbra in Thane on May 5. In June 2015, Kausar had submitted an application through her lawyer Farhana Shah in the special Terrorist and Disruptive Activity (TADA) court, which was hearing the blasts case, stating that she wanted to marry Salem.
Kausar had claimed that a tabloid in 2014 had reported that Salem had secretly married her during a train journey when he was being taken by the police to Lucknow for a court hearing. The report said that a Muslim cleric had presided over the nikah ceremony over the telephone.
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Kausar contended that following the report, her character had been sullied and she was unable to marry anybody else. She told the court that she now wanted to marry Salem. In his reply, Salem said that he intended to “compensate” Kausar by accepting her proposal. “I also undertake to [take] care of her in all respects once she gets married to me and ... she will not be further defamed as officially she will be my wife,” said Salem in his application.
On March 12, 1993, a series of 13 blasts ripped through the city. The attack was masterminded by Salem and Mustafa Dossa, who died of a heart attack on June 28, 2017.
Salem, who hails from Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested by Interpol in Lisbon in Portugal in 2002 and extradited in 2005 to India on the condition that he would not be sentenced to more than 25 years in prison. The special TADA court convicted Salem, Dossa and four others in the blasts case on June 16 last year and sentenced him to life imprisonment on September 7, 2017.
(With PTI inputs)