Bombay blast convict Abu Salem to be released after 25 years

New Delhi: The Centre must release gangster Abu Salem after he has served his 25-year term in the 1993 Mumbai bombings case, the Supreme Court said on Monday.

Salem had submitted to the court that a formal guarantee made by India to Portugal for his extradition in 2002 stipulated that his sentence must not go beyond 25 years.

The Supreme Court held that the sentence of life imprisonment imposed on Abu Salem in the 1993 Bombay Blasts case has to remitted upon the completion of 25 years from the date of his extradition to India as the sovereign commitment made by the Government of India to the Government of Nepal at the time of his extradition to India, LiveLaw reported.

“The necessary papers be forwarded within a month of completion of 25 years. In fact, the government can itself exercise the power of remission under CrPC within the time period of one month upon completion of 25 years,” a bench of Justices S K Kaul And M M Sundresh said.

Abu Salem was sentenced to life term on February 25, 2015, in a separate case for the 1995 killing of Mumbai-based builder Pradeep Jain and his driver Mehndi Hassan.

Salem, who was previously convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial explosions case, was extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005.

–INDIA NEWS STREAM