New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday recorded the
testimony of a police officer who had arrested extradited
gangster Abu Salem in an extortion case lodged under stringent
MCOCA for allegedly demanding Rs five crore as protection
money from a city-based businessman.
"I had formally arrested the accused Abu Salem in
connection with the case," Pankaj Singh, a police inspector,
told Additional Sessions Judge Pinki.
Singh, who is the second witness against Salem in the
MCOCA case, supported the facts relating to the date and time
of his arrest. The court has now fixed June 3 for examining
other witnesses.
Earlier, forensic expert D K Tanwar testified saying a
tape relating to an alleged conversation between Salem and the
victim was compared and analysed with voice sample of the
gangster taken by police and that they matched.
Salem allegedly made threat calls to Delhi-based
businessman Ashok Gupta in 2002 to extort Rs five crore as
protection money from him. Police had recorded some of the
alleged telephonic calls.
Besides Salem, who was elusive till his extradition from
Portugal in 2005, other accused in the case are Chanchal
Mehta, Majid Khan, Pawan Kumar Mittal, Mohd Ashraf. Another
accused Sajjan Kumar Soni died during pendency of the case.
Salem had also allegedly threatened Surender Kumar and R
K Suri, two other traders, for not paying "dues" to lone woman
co-accused Chanchal Mehta, police said.
Meanwhile, another court reserved its order on the bail
plea of Salem in other case of extortion lodged at Hauz Khas
police station against the extradited gangster and Romesh
Sharma, the alleged frontman of Dawood Ibrahim.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kiran Bansal has
now fixed July 5 for next hearing of the case.
According to the FIR, Salem allegedly made threat calls
to businessmen Vinay Kumar Singh and Malkiyat Singh. Sharma
used to provide information to Salem on phone regarding the
potential targets, police said.
During the day, Salem was also produced before Chief
Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja who recorded statement
of Umesh Mishra, a manager of a guest house, from where
alleged extortion calls were made to Delhi-based businessman
Rajat Nagrath by the accused seeking Rs five crore in
protection money in 2002.
The court fixed July five as next date of hearing in the
matter.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, May 29, 2010, 20:30