Salem’s lawyer to file complaint Maharashtra Home Minister

Pune/Bhopal, July 28 (ANI): Gangster Abu Salem’s lawyer on Wednesday said that a complaint will be filed against Maharashtra Home Minister Ramesh Bagwe for falsely alleging that Salem was receiving ‘five-star treatment’ in jail.

Maharashtra Home Minister, who visited the Arthur Road jail on Monday, had reportedly found out that Salem was living a very luxurious life.

Terming Bagwe’s allegations as false, Salem’s lawyer Saba Qureshi said: “It was a pre-planning from their side and that is how they have attacked him. We will file an application in the court against Maharashtra Home Minister and the jail authorities. Whatever Bagwe has said is absolutely wrong that Salem is getting a ‘five-star treatment’.”

“The bedding and everything, all the facilities are granted by the court. I think it was a cheap act to say that, and put such an allegation on him without verifying any orders and speaking,” she added.

Salem has been shifted to the Taloja jail in Maharashtra’s Thane District after his fellow inmate Mustafa Dossa, a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, attacked him inside the high security Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.

Qureshi further said that Salem does not feel safe in the jail, and has been shifted as it takes three hours to reach the court from the jail.

Rubbishing all speculations that Salem planned an attack on himself that he can go back to Portugal, Qureshi said he has no such intentions.

“He does not want to go back to Portugal. There are other conditions, which are violated by the government, by the Indian courts. He should not be tried under certain sections, but still he is being tried. That is the biggest violation,” said Qureshi.

“But we are still not moving to the Supreme Court because then he will be called back to Portugal. He does not want to go back, he wants to stay here. He has his family living and house here and he says he will never leave and go back,” she added.

Meanwhile, Rizwan Merchant, Mustafa Dossa’s lawyer, claimed that Salem inflicted injuries on himself to implicate Dossa.

“Our instructions from our complainant’s side are that such an incident never occurred, and Abu Salem has injured himself to prepare grounds to be able to go back to Portugal. This is because in his extradition treaty, there is provision for these grounds by the court that he should get full security, and if his life is under threat he could be sent back,” said Merchant.

Salem is currently facing trials in the 1993 bomb blasts and Gulshan Kumar murder cases. (ANI)