A Delhi court reserved its order on a plea by the city police seeking to drop charges under stringent MCOCA against underworld don Abu Salem.
A Delhi court today reserved its order on a plea by the city police seeking to drop charges under stringent MCOCA against underworld don Abu Salem on the ground that it was against the conditions for his extradition agreed to between India and Portugal.
"The pending application of the Delhi police is heard. Fix the application for order on July 22," Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pinki said after the counsel for the police and CBI wrapped up arguments.
Salem, a gangster extradited from Portugal in 2005, was booked under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) for allegedly making extortion calls to city-based businessman Ashok Gupta in 2002, demanding Rs 5 crore as protection money.
The police, on the directions of the Centre, had earlier moved an application for dropping of MCOCA charges against Salem saying it would be in violation of extradition terms.
While extraditing Salem to India, Portugal had put several conditions such as he cannot be awarded death penalty and he can't be kept in jail for over 25 years nor be booked under any special statute. It had also asked India not to try Salem in more than nine criminal cases.
Before the start of the proceedings, media persons had a tough time as security personnel headed by ACP Vijay Singh of Delhi Police tried to prevent them from entering the courtroom.
A K Vali, appearing for the CBI Director, clarified the Centre's stand on the extradition of Salem.
"The probe agency had no option but to agree to Portugal's insistence for Salem's extradition, instead of deportation, which put restrictions on the number of cases in which he could be tried and the quantum of sentence that could be awarded to him," he said.
All possible efforts were taken by the then government and CBI, the nodal agency of Interpol in the country, to deport Salem, Vali said.
"Salem was holding a Pakistani passport and could have been deported to any country, either to Pakistan or the nation from where he illegally entered Portugal, after his arrest," he said.
CBI also filed a copy of the order of the Portugal High Court which Salem had petitioned alleging the Indian authorities have violated the extradition terms by filing cases under special statutes like MCOCA.
Earlier, the court had issued notice to the CBI Director seeking a response on the police submission that "undue conditions" in lodging cases against Salem could have been avoided had CBI got him deported instead of agreeing to his conditional extradition.
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