TADA court rejects Salem’s plea to stay trials in India

A designated TADA court on Tuesday rejected jailed gangster Abu Salem’s plea to stay the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blast trial and proceedings in the Pradeep Jain murder case on the ground that a Portuguese court has terminated his extradition.

TADA judge G A Sanap, while rejecting Salem’s plea, observed that the Indian government has challenged the high court order in the Supreme Court of Portugal and until a final order was passed there, the proceedings in Indian courts could not be stayed.

Salem had also pleaded in the same petition that the jail authorities be directed not to produce him in any court till the conclusion of proceedings in Lisbon. He argued that the trial in cases registered against him cannot go on after the Portuguese Court order terminating his extradition.