Mumbai cops to write to MEA for speedy extradition of Abu Salem aide held in Bangladesh

The Mumbai crime branch is in the process of writing to the ministry of external affairs (MEA) in Delhi to get the extradition process of gangster Abu Salem's aide Abdul Rauf Daud Merchant expedited. Merchant is currently imprisoned in Bangladesh for an offence registered there against him.

Arrested in January 2001, he was convicted with life imprisonment in the murder case of music baron Gulshan Kumar in 2009. The same year Merchant jumped parole and absconded.

On August 12, 1997, Kumar was gunned down near a temple in Four Bungalows, Andheri (West). The police had arrested 25 people in the offence, of which 17, including Merchant, were convicted and awarded life imprisonment on April 24, 2002.

Merchant, a resident of Mumbra in Thane, was sent to Aurangabad prison. He came out on parole on April 15, 2009, for 14 days and absconded. The police had issued a lookout circular against Merchant then.
In June 2009, he was arrested by the Bangladesh police in a bogus passport case and for staying illegally in Bangladesh.

"We are writing to the MEA to get a status on Merchant from Bangladesh, to see if he has completed his sentence, in which case he could be extradited to India at the earliest," said a crime branch officer, requesting anonymity.