Abu Salem can face death penalty: Supreme Court

In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court on Friday said gangster Abu Salem, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, can be tried for offences inviting death penalty.

The apex court rejected his plea that he cannot be tried for offences which entail death penalty as the same was the pre-condition agreed by the government at the time of his extradition from Portugal.

A division bench of justices P Sathasivam and AK Ganguly said the additional charges framed by the Tada court were for “lesser offences” which were subsumed in the main charges under Section 302 IPC (murder) and various other offences under the Tada, for which his extradition was obtained.

Salem was extradited from Portugal in 2005 on the request of the then minister of state for external affairs Omar Abdullah and deputy prime minister LK Advani. The Indian government had given an undertaking that Salem wouldn’t be awarded death penalty.

The court said there was no violation of the undertaking given at the time of extradition.