Gangster Abu Salem wants bail to get married to 26-year-old Mumbra woman
Abu Salem moved a Mumbai court seeking parole or temporary bail to visit the marriage registrar’s office to solemnize his wedding
A month after being convicted in the Mumbai serial blasts case, gangster Abu Salem moved a Mumbai court seeking parole or temporary bail to visit the marriage registrar’s office to solemnize his wedding.
Salem had earlier given his consent for marrying a 26-year-old woman who had approached the special TADA court in June 2015 seeking permission for it.
The mob boss himself had moved the marriage plea in August 2015, but to no avail. This time, his lawyer has submitted citations of two high courts claiming convicts were given such relief for entering into wedlock.
“We have given the court two citations, one from the Bombay High Court and another from the Delhi High Court, stating that a person can be granted bail or parole for marriage,” said Salem’s lawyer Farhana Shah.
Salem has requested the court to grant him the permission to attend the office of the Registrar of Marriage.
“In view of the two citations, his (Salem’s) application seeking the permission to attend the (office of) the Registrar of Marriage for solemnisation of marriage be kindly considered,” Shah told the court.
The trial court Judge, G A Sanap, has asked the CBI to file its response to Salem’s petition.
“I humbly request to kindly consider (her application) and grant us permission to register and perform marriage under Special Marriage Act before the registrar,” Salem has said in his petition.
According to a 2015 report published in a local tabloid along with a photograph of the woman, Salem had married her ‘over phone’ during a train journey when he was being taken to Lucknow for a court hearing under police escort.
Following the report, the TADA court had directed the Thane Police to conduct an inquiry.
In her application, the Mumbra woman had contended that following the news report that Salem had secretly married her, police asked many people about the alleged marriage and showed the photograph which sullied her character.
Since she was unable to marry anybody else now, she wanted to enter into a wedlock with Salem, she had said.
Salem had said in his reply that he wanted to marry her so she could “meet and answer all the relatives, friends and well-wishers with her head up in the society”. He said he intended to “compensate” the woman by accepting her proposal.
In June, the TADA court in Mumbai had convicted Salem and five others for their role in the serial bomb blasts of March 12, 1993 in which 257 people were killed.
The CBI had subsequently sought life imprisonment for Salem, convicted under stringent sections of the now-repealed TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act in the bomb blast case.
With PTI inputs
