Salem denies all charges in fake passport case

Gangster Abu Salem denied all charges against him in the alleged fake passport case and said they were fabricated to ensure his extradition on Wednesday.

Salem, whose statement was recorded in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Ramgopal Singh, claimed that he never visited Bhopal nor the city municipal corporation office in connection with the fake passport case.

The court prepared a long questionnaire carrying 269 queries on the basis of statement of 36 witnesses, but Salem answered all of them in negative and said that these questions have nothing to do with him.

He said he was being framed and that all charges were fabricated to get him extradited.

Salem also submitted an application carrying his signature and told the court that police never got his signature examined from the hand-writing experts.

He further claimed that at the time when these fake passports were made, he was in Dubai and at that time he was having enough evidence to establish that.

The extradited gangster said that if the case would have been probed by CBI instead of local police, then the entire truth behind it would have come out.

He also denied that he had any relation with his alleged old associate Siraj, who turned prosecution witness in the case.

The fugitive was produced amid tight security in the court, where the hearing lasted for nearly one-and-a-half hour. The court has fixed August 17 as the next date of hearing in the case.

Salem was recently injured in Mumbai's high security Arthur Road Jail after being attacked by fellow prisoner, Mustafa Dossa, a member of the Dawood gang.