A 25-year-old woman from the suburb of Mumbra in Thane district has moved a special TADA court here seeking permission to marry gangster Abu Salem.
The woman has stated in her application that she was defamed after her name and photographs appeared in the media linking her to the gangster.
Last February, there were reports that the woman was married to Salem on a train. The ‘nikah’ was allegedly performed on the train when Salem was being escorted by the police on a train to Lucknow for a court appearance there.
“She wants to officially marry him. She was defamed in the media. After the reports, she was informally referred to in her locality as Abu Salem’s wife and even her family and acquaintances are pointing fingers at her. No one would want to marry her now. She has said that she has no other choice but to marry him. Otherwise she will commit suicide,” her lawyer Farhana Shah told The Hindu .
The woman moved the application on June 15 before the special TADA judge GA Sanap.
Ms. Shah said when the police went to investigate the alleged ‘nikah’, they carried her photograph in the area.
Salem, 46, was extradited to India in 2002. This February, he was convicted in the 1995 murder case of city-based builder Pradeep Jain.
He is being tried for his alleged involvement in the murders of music baron Gulshan Kumar and the unsuccessful attempts on the lives of filmmakers Rakesh Roshan and Rajeev Rai.
