From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the Centre’s clarification on imprisonment of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Abu Salem beyond 25 years and fixed further hearing on on March 8 on his petition pending since 2015.
A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M M Sundresh was hearing a plea by Salem that his imprisonment beyond 25 years is against the assurance given by India to Portugal at the time of his extradition in 2005.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and he is before the top court to assert that it can’t be more than 25 years. However in 2012, the Supreme Court had removed a misunderstanding that the life imprisonment means 14 or 20 years, holding that the life imprisonment means staying in prison until the offender dies and nothing else..
Salem’s counsel Rishi Malhotra told the Court that under the extradition treaty, India had assured the Portuguese government that Salem will not be given death penalty and he will not be kept in jail for more than 25 years SC questiones Abu Salem imprisonment.
He contended that where as the life imprisonment violates the treaty , 25 years commence from September 18, 2002 when a Red Cross notice was issued for his extradition, though the Mumbai TADA court that sentenced him to life imprisonment had said that 25 years be counted from 2005 when he was extradited and brought to India.
Salem’s case is that the 2017 judgment of TADA Court sentencing him to life imprisonment was against the terms of the extradition treaty.
Last year also, Salem had knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court, which rejected his plea that his extradition was illegal.
