The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea filed by a 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict and gangster, Abu Salem, seeking premature release from his life sentence.A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta found no fault with the Bombay High Court’s judgment rejecting Salem’s plea.Salem had argued that, after taking into account the remission he earned during his time in prison, he had completed 25 years of his sentence and was therefore entitled to be released.However, the Bombay High Court held tha...
The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea filed by a 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict and gangster, Abu Salem, seeking premature release from his life sentence.
A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta found no fault with the Bombay High Court’s judgment rejecting Salem’s plea.
Salem had argued that, after taking into account the remission he earned during his time in prison, he had completed 25 years of his sentence and was therefore entitled to be released.
However, the Bombay High Court held that his 25-year sentence would be completed only in 2030.
Salem challenged the High Court’s order in the Supreme Court, which reserved its judgment on July 27.
What is this condition?
Abu Salem was arrested in Portugal in 2002. On the sidelines of his arrest on December 17, 2002, India gave assurance to Portugal that if Salem was extradited for trial in India, he would not be given the death penalty. Additionally, he would also not be imprisoned for a term beyond 25 years.
Although at that time the top court also made it clear that the period he spent in Portugal in a passport fraud case could not be counted towards the 25 years.
What was the punishment given to Salem?
The extradition battle for Salem continued until 2005, when he was finally brought to India. Following this, he faced trial in two TADA cases, one relating to the 1993 Bombay blasts and another separate case.
India sentenced Salem to life imprisonment by judgments dated February 25, 2015, and September 7, 2017, respectively.
Salem's claim on his trial Salem’s core claim is that if three components of his punishments are correctly counted together, he has crossed the 25-year mark by March, 31, 2025.
According to his plea, these components include his undertrial custody, his post-conviction custody, and the remission for good conduct.
According to him, any further imprisonment beyond that is illegal custody.