Thursday, a plea submitted by the gangster Abu Salem for being released on bail has been tossed out by the Supreme Court, who said he had served his 25-year term in India under the conditions of his extradition from Portugal.
The order of the Bombay High Court in April dismissing Salem’s request for immediate release as “bizarre and misjudged” was upheld by a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta.
The assurances of extradition India had provided to Portugal means that Salem cannot be sentenced to death and that his prison sentence would not be for more than 25 years. Bombay High Court, however, had ruled that the 25-year term would be fulfilled in November 2030 as per the assurance made at the time of his extradition.
Also, in the eyes of the High Court, remission as per the general remission rules applicable to prisoners would not extend the time period any further.
Senior lawyer Rishi Malhotra appearing for Salem had told the Supreme Court that the jail term which his client had served as an undertrial should also be included with the sentence. He additionally argued that good conduct remission should be counted toward the 25-year period.
Salem also followed the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of Swami Shraddananda vs State of Karnataka. His legal team calculated that with his released time that had been superseded by his period of undertrial detention as well as the earned remission, his total period of confinement might have been about 25 years.
But the plea was rejected by the Supreme Court and the decision of the Bombay High Court regarding the full date of completion of the sentence of Salem was upheld.
After a long drawn-out legal battle in India for his extradition from Portugal, Salem was convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings and extradited on November 11, 2005.