HC denies parole to Abu Salem; expresses inability to pay police escort charges
The Bombay High Court on Thursday rejected jailed gangster Abu Salem’s plea for parole after he expressed an inability to pay the police escort charges.
Salem, serving a 25-year sentence in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, has sought emergency parole to visit his native place in Uttar Pradesh to mourn the death of his brother Abu Hakim Ansari.
A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Shyam Chandak rejected Salem’s plea after his lawyer argued that he was unable to pay the high security escort charges stipulated by the state prison authorities. In the previous hearing, the lawyer had told the court that Salem won’t be able to pay more than Rs 1 lakh towards the escort charges. The court had then orally commented that he “cannot bargain” and will have to pay the mandatory charges if he wants to go.
Salem further pointed out that since his arrest in November 2005, he has been in jail and was only granted parole leaves of a few days after the death of his mother and also after the demise of his stepmother. Salem, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, was extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005, after a prolonged legal battle. A special TADA court had separately awarded life imprisonment to Salem in another case for murdering Mumbai-based builder Pradeep Jain in 1995.
