Abu Salem’s face is crumbling

Cracks have appeared on gangster’s face as effects of plastic surgery wear off

MUMBAI: We’ve heard of looks that kill, but looks that peel! That seems to be what is happening to gangster Abu Salem. 

Many, including senior police officers, were surprised with Salem’s flashy looks when he was extradited from Portugal to India in November 2005. The gangster sported neatly cropped hair and had flawless fair skin.

But after two and a half years of cooling his heels in the high-security ‘anda’ cell of Arthur Road Jail, Salem’s facial skin seems to be withering and his “poster boy” image is wearing off. Quite literally, the gangster’s real skin is emerging.

Salem, 40, who is currently lodged in Barrack 10 of the jail, has developed cracks on his cheeks and around the temples, and the facelift is sagging, say police officers who have recently interrogated him.

Officers from the Ghatkopar police, who grilled Salem for over two hours last week in the prison in connection with the suicide attempt of his lawyer Pallavi Ashar, observed cracks on his face.

“The skin, particularly around his temples and cheeks, is wearing off,” said a senior officer, requesting anonymity. “The plastic surgery seems to be giving way.”

The flashy gangster, who scared the living daylights out of Bollywood in the late 1990s with his extortion demands, reportedly underwent plastic surgery in 2002, perhaps to evade arrest.

Before he first came into the limelight in the 1993 bomb blasts case, Salem, a small-time goon in Mumbai’s western suburbs, was described by police officers as a “petit man who had long hair and a beard and often sported a skull cap”. But when the officers saw him again in November 2005, the flat nose and chubby cheeks had turned into a sculpted nose and flat cheeks. His wheatish complexion had also become fair.

“But now he looks old and it seems as if he has freckles on his face,” a jail official said.
According to cosmetic surgeons in the city, post-operative care is very important when it comes to any surgery. “When cosmetic surgery is done on the face, it involves procedures like facelift and rhinoplasty,” said Dr Neeta Patel from the Chicago Cosmetic Centre, Aarogya Nidhi Hospital, Juhu.

“These days there are several skin rejuvenation programmes and therapies advised to people after the age of 25. They involve procedures that cause a lot of exfoliation and redness in the face. If Salem has undergone such therapy, he would need to take a lot more care of his skin, which is not possible behind bars.”

Patel said a certain chemical, which is a by-product of Vitamin A, causes redness and peeling of the face. Also if Salem has undergone laser dermabrasion on his face, in which the outer layer is removed to lighten the skin tone, then his skin may be particularly sensitive to the sun.

According to Dr Meenakshi Agarwal, another cosmetic surgeon, normally the complexion cannot be changed from dark to fair. It is a myth that the face can be changed entirely in the manner shown in television serials, she said. “However, if Salem has undergone a facelift, it is possible that with age his facial tissues have started sagging,” she said.

— Abu Salem’s hometown: Sarai Mir, Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh.

— He was a driver in Delhi before entering the world of crime.

— He is a key accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

— Film personalities he is accused of targeting: T-Series owner Gulshan Kumar, Manisha Koirala’s secretary Ajit Dewani, Rajiv Rai, Rakesh Roshan and Manmohan Shetty. The first two were killed.

— Was first arrested by the DN Nagar police after a case of abduction was filed against him by his first wife’s parents.
— Though he had changed his looks, the Mumbai Police identified him from his fingerprints.