By Mata Press Service
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Monica Bedi |
Salem and Bedi were originally arrested in Portugal in 2002. India had assured Portugal that the duo would not be executed if they were returned to face charges.
In addition to the Mumbai bombings, Indian police want to question Salem in connection with more than 60 murders as well as cases of extortion and kidnapping involving Bollywood film producers and actors.
The couple fled India after the 1993 bombings and lived in Lisbon among the expatriate Goan community prior to their arrest.
Police in India now say Bedi, a bit player when it came to Bollywood, is likely to be their key ally as they probe Salem‘s international connections and track down his loot.
Indian investigators said Salem and Bedi traveled together often to the USA, UK, Switzerland, Canada and Norway where the don had reportedly invested a lot of money in real estate and other ventures.
Bedi had three forged passports and is said to have used the fake identities of Fauzia Usman and Sana Malik to enter Canada.
Salem assumed the name of Ramil Kamil Malik.
Indian authorities say Salem, an Indian Muslim, is a key associate of Indian crime lord Dawood Ibrahim, currently India‘s most wanted man.
Dawood Ibrahim is also suspected of involvement in the bombings, believed to have been carried out in revenge for the deaths of hundreds of Muslims in riots in 1992 blamed on the right-wing Hindu Shiv Sena party.
Underworld don Abu Salem being produced before TADA court in Mumbai on November 11, 2005 under heavy security.
According to Indian officials, Dawood now operates out of the Pakistan.
Like most other gangsters who joined the Bombay mob in the late 1980s and early 90s, Abu Salem started as a small timer in the Dawood gang.
A native of Saria Meer in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, Abu Salem is believed to have begun his career in Delhi as a taxi driver.
He moved to Mumbai in the mid-1980s and embarked on a career of petty crime while operating a telephone booth in the northern suburb of Andheri.
Soon Abu Salem became a gun runner for the Dawood gang.
He quickly also began extorting money from builders in the city and Bollywood personalities on behalf of Dawood.
It was the sensational daylight killing of Bollywood producer and music baron Gulshan Kumar in 1997 which catapulted Abu Salem into the big leagues
Bollywood now started dreading the mention of Abu Salem, who used the Gulshan Kumar murder and the attempt on Rajiv Rai to terrorise figures in the Indian film world.
Abu Salem‘s clout with Bollywood producers during the late-90‘s is the stuff of legend in India‘s film industry.
The police believe he routinely extorted producers and then went on to produce some films himself.
He also met starlet Monica Bedi and began living with her. The police say that he pressured Bollywood producers to include Bedi in their films in spite of a spate of flops.
