Court defers its order on dropping MCOCA charges against Salem

A Delhi court deferred its order on a plea by the city police to drop charges under stringent MCOCA against underworld don Abu Salem.

A Delhi court deferred its order on a plea by the city police to drop charges under stringent MCOCA against underworld don Abu Salem on the ground that it was against the conditions for his extradition agreed to between India and Portugal.

Additional Sessions Judge Pinki has fixed the matter for order on August six and asked public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan to file case laws to support the plea.

Earlier,the court had reserved the matter for pronouncing its order for today on the application filed by the Delhi police after being asked by the Centre on the ground that invoking of charges under the MCOCA was against the extradition terms.

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Salem,a gangster extradited from Portugal in 2005,was booked under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) for allegedly making extortion calls to city-based businessman Ashok Gupta in 2002,demanding Rs 5 crore as protection money.

While extraditing Salem,Portugal had put several conditions such as he cannot be awarded death penalty and he can’t be kept in jail for over 25 years nor be booked under any special statute. It had also asked India not to try Salem in more than nine criminal cases.

Salem was extradited in connection with Mumbai blasts,passport cases of Lucknow and Hyderabad,three extortion cases and a conspiracy to murder in Delhi and Pradip Jain case in Mumbai.

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