Abu Salem can be tried for all crimes: SC

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday held that underworld don and 1993 Bombay blasts accused Abu Salem can be tried for all crimes committed by him in the country, including those that invite death penalty.

The apex court rejected the plea that Salem cannot be prosecuted for crimes that invited capital punishment for the accused as Portugal, from where he was extradited, had laid the condition that he will not be awarded death penalty.

Justices P Sathisivam and AK Ganguly, in concurrent judgements, ruled that Salem can be tried for murder (section 302) and criminal conspiracy (120-B) of the IPC, besides other offences under the TADA in connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

The apex court said since that the two countries (India and Portugal) are signatories to the international convention on elimination of terrorism, hence, it felt that there was nothing wrong if the various provisions under TADA and the IPC were invoked against Salem.

The prosecution had maintained that the Portugal government cannot set pre-conditions on Indian courts and also pointed that Salem would surely to handed down death penalty was ?preposterous? as trial was yet to conclude.

Salem was extradited from Portugal in 2005 during the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, which had given an undertaking that the underworld don will not be awarded death penalty.

Salem has been lodged in a Mumbai jail since then and is facing trial in nine cases, including two murders.