New Delhi: A forensic expert on Tuesday testified
as first witness in a Delhi court in an extortion case lodged
under stringent MCOCA against extradited gangster Abu Salem
and claimed the voice, recorded on the tape, matched with that
of the sample taken from the don.
"The tape, relating to an alleged conversation between
Abu Salem and the victim, was compared and analysed with the
voice sample of Salem, taken by police during the probe, and
they matched. The voice on the tape and the sample belong to
same person," D K Tanwar, special senior scientific officer of
the CFSL, told the court.
Tanwar, who was examined by public prosecutor Rajeev
Mohan, stood by the findings of the forensic test conducted on
the tape provided by Delhi police during the investigation.
The witness would now be examined by the counsel for
Salem on May 29, the next date of hearing.
Salem had allegedly made threat calls to Delhi-based
businessman Ashok Gupta to extort Rs five crore as protection
money from him. Police had recorded some of the alleged
telephonic calls.
Earlier, the court framed charges against Salem under
various provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes
Act for continuing with unlawful criminal activities in an
organised manner by forming a crime syndicate.
He had also been charged with conspiracy, attempt to
extort money, threatening and running an organised crime
syndicate.
Besides Salem, who had remained 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 and consequently, proceedings against him was
stopped.
An FIR against Salem and others were lodged in 2002 at
Greater Kailash police station here on the charge of
threatening Ashok Gupta, a Delhi-based businessman, to extort
Rs five crore as protection money from him.
The accused, meanwhile, had also threatened Surender
Kumar and R K Suri, two other traders, for allegedly not
paying the dues to lone woman co-accused Chanchal Mehta, the
police said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, May 18, 2010, 19:59