SC seeks Centre's response on Salem's plea

The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the centre and CBI on a plea of ga­n­gster Abu Salem seeking qu­ashing of criminal cases against him following the order terminating his extradition to India by the apex court in Portugal where he was arrested in 2003.

A bench of Justices P Sathasivam and J Chelameswar stayed the on-going proceedings against Salem in two cases including the 1993 serial blasts before Mumbai’s TADA court.

Salem pleaded for staying the criminal proceedings in all the 7 cases and sought the apex court to set aside TADA court’s order of January 31. The special TADA court had rejected his application for closure of the cases. The counsel, appearing for the gangster, referred to the Portugal court’s decision ending his extradition to India as the authorities violated the condition mandating that he would not be tried in cases  where there was capital punishment.