The Navi Mumbai police commissionerate on Saturday denied parole to 1993 Mumbai blast case convict Abu Salem, ANI reported. Salem had sent his application to the prison department for a 45-day parole from Taloja jail to marry Kausar Bahar.
Police are trying to verify the authenticity of Salem’s claims, The Times of India reported. “We have got a letter stating Salem wants a 45-day parole to get married on May 5,” Thane police commissioner Parambir Singh told Hindustan Times.
On September 7, 2017, a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activity court in Mumbai had sentenced Abu Salem to life for his role in the blasts. He was already serving a life sentence for his alleged role in the murder of a Mumbai builder in 1995. Salem has also been accused of murder and extortion in several other matters.
On Saturday, Delhi’s Patiala House Court postponed announcing its verdict on the 2002 extortion case to April 28, ANI reported.
The Mumbai serial blasts
On March 12, 1993, at least 257 people were killed and over 700 injured in 12 powerful blasts across Mumbai. Orchestrated by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, the blasts were an act of revenge against the communal riots that swept through Mumbai in December 1992 and January 1993 after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. At least 900 people were killed in the riots and more than 2,000 were injured – the majority of them Muslims.
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