Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today
directed the Mumbai police commissioner to produce Abdul Rauf
Merchant, the absconding convict in Gulshan Kumar murder case,
by June 30.
Merchant has been convicted for shooting the music
baron dead, and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, he
disappeared after being released on parole last year.
Earlier, Mumbai police had informed the High Court
-- where Merchant`s appeal against conviction is pending --
that he fled to Bangladesh and had been detained there.
Police then turned to Interpol to bring him back.
However, additional public prosecutor Mankunvar
Deshmukh told the court today that Interpol`s Delhi branch has
no information about Rauf`s latest whereabouts.
"Recently there was no communication from Bangladesh
authorities as to whether he was still in their custody,"
Deshmukh said.
The division bench of Justices B H Marlapalle and
Mridula Bhatkar, however, said that it was commissioner of
police`s responsibility to produce him before the court.
"Produce him on or before June 30," the court said.
The hearing has been adjourned to July 5.
Gulshan Kumar was gunned down on August 12, 1997,
outside a temple in suburban Andheri.
PTI
