On August 7, the Bombay High Court rejected 1993 serial blasts convict Abu Salem’s plea, to get a 45-day parole for his marriage. Salem, in his petition, said that he was lodged in jail since November 2005 and should be allowed to maintain family and social ties. However, he did not mention the date on which he intends to marry.
Salem has been lodged in Taloja Jail and is serving a life sentence for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice V K Tahilramani and Justice M S Sonak rejected the plea on the grounds of the observation that Salem has been convicted on a serious charge of terrorism and hence cannot be released on parole.
After the movie Sanju released, Salem’s lawyer, in July, had sent a legal notice to Raj Kumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the distributors and the production companies involved in the making of the film, demanding the removal of scenes which allegedly defamed the gangster.
The Indian Express reported that previously in April, Salem’s plea seeking a 45-day parole to get married for a second time to a woman identified as Sayed Bahar Kausar, a resident of Mumbra area in Thane district, was rejected by the Navi Mumbai Commissioner.
The gangster’s parole request said that it should be considered on “humanitarian grounds” as he cannot evade his duty towards the woman since he has promised to marry her, and that she did not intend to marry anyone else.
A special Terrorist and Disruptive Activity (TADA) Court sentenced Salem to life imprisonment last year as he was found to have had a role in the blasts in which 257 people were killed and 713 were injured. In addition to that he is also serving a life-term sentence for the murder of city builder Pradeep Jain.
On May 26, he was convicted in a case against Delhi-based businessman Ashok Gupta by a Delhi court and in June 2018 he was sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment for extorting Rs 5 crore as protection money.