NEW DELHI: Underworld don Abu Salem on Thursday approached the Supreme Court challenging his conviction and seven-year jail term for possessing fake passport.
A Bench headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, before whom the case came up for hearing, however, recused herself saying that she had earlier heard the Mumbai Blast Case in which Salem was also an accused. The case will now be heard by another Bench.
Salem, 46, was convicted and awarded seven-year rigorous imprisonment by a special CBI court in Hyderabad in a fake passport case in 2013.
He was held guilty under different sections of the IPC for obtaining a passport under a fictitious name and address from Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.
Salem had procured the fake passport under the fictitious identity of Ramil Kamil Malik by submitting forged documents to the Hyderabad Regional Passport Office, in connivance with some government officials and private persons in 2001.
He had obtained three passports, one for his first wife Sameera Zumani, another for his companion and actor Monica Bedi and a third for himself.
Salem and Bedi were extradited to India on November 11, 2005 and the fake passport case was transferred to the CBI from AP police in October 2002, and a chargesheet was filed in 2004 against 10 accused.