The prosecution on Friday conceded that Abu Salem could not be awarded the death sentence in the Pradeep Jain murder case because of India’s extradition agreement with Portugal.
After Abu Salem and two others were convicted by a special TADA court this week, the prosecution sought the death penalty for the gangster, who was deported from Portugal in 2005. It has now sought life imprisonment for him. “I concede that the Portugal law does not allow the death penalty. Also, according to Section 34C of the Indian Extradition Act, the death penalty cannot be awarded. But life imprisonment till the end of natural life should be given,” special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said.
When the defence had earlier pointed out that the extradition treaty did not allow the death sentence, he refused to relent. On Friday, he told the court that the treaty was signed by the executive, not by the judiciary. “The court will now have to consider whether the executive assurance can bind judicial pronouncement, given that the legislature is separate from the judiciary. If it does, it amounts to interference in judicial proceedings,” Mr. Nikam argued.
He said the Union government’s assurances would be honoured at the appropriate stage, “but it could be illogical to say that [a] court of law is bound by [an] executive assurance.”
Arguing for life sentence, he said Salem was the leader of organised crime and operated from outside the country. “He wanted to build his own kingdom. To create fear in the minds of people is [his] basic motive. That is how these dons work,” he said.
Mr. Nikam sought the death sentence for co-accused Mehendi Hassan and said his case was in the “rarest of rare” category. “The nature and extent of [the] criminal conspiracy was divulged in [its] entirety only in this case,” he said, adding that the rarest of rare principle could apply to only a particular accused, and not the entire case.
