NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the writ petition filed by Abu Salem to be infructuous and said that the accused can raise his contentions in the appeal in connection with the 2002 Delhi extortion case.
The top court maintained that since the petitioner has now been convicted and has also filed an appeal, the writ petition has become ‘infructuous’, Imtiyaz Ahmed, Salem’s lawyer, told ANI.
In the writ petition, Salem had sought that direction be given to the Centre to send him back to Portugal as it had allegedly flouted rules while seeking his deportation.
Ahmed said, “The writ petition was filed by Salem before the apex court for directing the Union Government to send him back to Portugal as the Portuguese top most Constitutional Court has held that India had allegedly violated the undertakings given while seeking extradition, and therefore, held that the extradition order is terminated.”
Salem is facing trial and was extradited from Portugal in 2005 along with five others.
He, in 2002, had allegedly made extortion calls to businessman Ashok Gupta, demanding Rs 5 crore as protection money.
Gupta, in his complaint, had stated that Salem repeatedly called and threatened him.
Police also claimed to have recorded some of the telephonic conversations.
Salem was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activity (TADA) Court in the 1993 serial blasts in Bombay that had killed 257 and injured 713 people.