The Initiation
Some time around 1988-89, Abu Salem was just an errand boy, who would carry crates of tea glasses for shopkeepers in Andheri’s Arsa market. By March, 1993, after the serial bomb blasts rocked Mumbai, killing over 250, his rising crime graph had catapulted him into the big league.
Now, with the Portugal Supreme Court packing him off back to India, the wheel of fortune seems to have turned a full circle for this dreaded gangster, who with his massive extortion racket, gave Bollywood biggies sleepless nights.
The Making Of A Don
The man who earned the dubious sobriquet of ‘Bollywood Don’, took to a career in crime when he latched onto ‘Big Bhai’ Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Anees Kaskar. Salem’s criminal intent clear, Anees saw in him a lucrative conduit who could run his clandestine operations, albeit on a small scale.
This was sometime in the late Eighties when Salem, now 43, had landed on the shores of Mumbai from the Hindi hinterland of Sarai Mir in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh. Salem had a brief stint as a driver for Congress leader Romesh Sharma in New Delhi, but it wasn’t quite the kind of life he longed for.
As soon as he landed in Mumbai, his criminally fertile mind began to look for ways and means to make money. In the congested lanes of Arsa market, he began to run an unauthorised telephone booth. A meeting with Anees Kaskar gave him the chance to hit big time. Till then, Salem was relatively a small entity in the city’s thriving underworld belly.
The Man And His Style
Before he mastered the art of disguising himself and dodging the police, Salem first forayed into the extortion territory. His cousin, Akhtar, a small-time crook, worked as the front man till he was killed in an encounter. Salem then took to settling land disputes, charging money from his ‘clients’.
Flush with ill-gotten money, he soon developed a taste for flashy clothes. Dawood got him to organise star shows in Dubai, and impressed with his persuasive ways, gave him a free hand to extort money from Bollywood.
The ‘S’ Gang
Salem hired men from UP “on contract” for a pittance. He used women to deliver lethal weapons to his hitmen.
Reign of Terror
He shot into limelight when music baron, T-Series owner Gulshan Kumar, was shot dead by his henchmen on 12 August, 1997. It marked the beginning of a spine-chilling extortion racket. Salem called up his victims, mostly prominent Bollywood personalities, and made hefty demands, threatening to wipe out anyone who wouldn’t comply.
Ajit Dewani, Manisha Koirala’s secretary, was shot dead in June 2002. Earlier, he had producer Javed Riyaz Siddique killed on 6 June, 1994. Salem’s men also made a vain bid on producer Rajeev Rai outside his air-conditioned market at Tardeo on 31 July, 1997.
Flirting With Glamour
Salem was also known to be close to some actresses. One of them, Monica Bedi, who made her film debut opposite Sanjay Dutt, reportedly married him. Bedi, who has been brought in along with Salem, is charged with travelling on a false passport.
The gangster had his first brush with the law when Juhu police arrested him on assault charges in 1991.
It was the way he managed to give the police a slip that sent his stocks soaring. Not hand-cuffed, Salem just brushed aside the escorting cops and took to his heels.
Break With Dawood
A dispute with Chhota Shakeel, Dawood’s right-hand man, in 1998 severed Salem’s ties with Dawood. The gangster, who became a fugitive after his role in the 1993 serial blasts, sought a haven in Gulf countries. He kept shifting bases — always one step ahead of the law.
End Of The Road
On 24 October, 2002, he was arrested by the Sharjah Police. They requested India to send his fingerprints so that they could establish his identity.
The Indian government failed to do so as the Mumbai police did not have them, sources alleged. Sharjah police let him off. Realising that he was no more secure in the Gulf, Salem escaped to Portugal, where his luck finally ran out.
His Hit List
Ajit Dewani, secretary of Manisha Koirala, gunned down on 30 June, 2002, at Andheri. Dewani had allegedly played mediator between Salem and Bollywood stars
Accused of hatching conspiracy with music director Nadeem Saifi, now in England, to kill music czar Gulshan Kumar on 12 August, 1997, at Oshiwara
Attempt on the life of director, producer and actor Rakesh Roshan at Santa Cruz (West) on January 21, 2000, when Roshan refused to part with overseas distribution of his super-duper ‘Kaho Na Pyar Hai’
Attempt on Bollywood producer Rajiv Rai on 31 July, 1997, at Tardeo AC market
Film producer Javed Riyaz Siddique murdered on 7 June, 1994, at Andheri.
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