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On Abu Salem, SC says ‘centre bound to not extend jail term beyond 25 yrs’
On gangster Abu Salem, Supreme Court says 'centre bound to honour' undertaking to not extend jail term beyond 25 years
The Supreme Court on Monday said the central government is bound to honour the undertaking given to Portugal of not sentencing gangster Abu Salem for a jail term beyond 25 years.
On completion of the 25 year-sentence, the court said, the government is bound to advise the President of India and release Salem “as per the solemn assurance and the principle of comity of nations”. The top court was hearing Abu Salem's plea challenging his life imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. The court had earlier reserved its judgement in the case on May 5.
Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj had earlier told the court that the "government is bound by the solemn sovereign assurance given by then deputy Prime Minister L K Advani to the Portugal government and it will abide by it at an appropriate time".
In his plea, Abu Salem had said: “Solemn sovereign assurance cannot be forced on the judiciary. The Executive will act on it at an appropriate stage. We are bound by the solemn sovereign assurance in this regard. Judiciary is independent, it can proceed as per law.”
Salem was handed down two life terms by the trial courts for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts and the murder of businessman Pradeep Jain in 1995. After his extradition, in February 2015, a special TADA court awarded Salem life imprisonment for murdering Mumbai-based builder Pradeep Jain in 1995, along with his driver Mehndi Hassan.
In May, the court before reserving its judgement had said: “Based on the arguments made, two scenarios emerge before us — whether looking into the assurance given before a foreign court, the executive should be told to take a time-bound decision on his remission just before completion of 25 years or going by the principle of comity of courts, this court should say that in the light of the assurance we read down the sentence of life imprisonment to a period of 25 years."
(With inputs from PTI)
