Supreme Court Rejects Abu Salem's Release Plea, Upholds 25-Year Extradition Term

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea by gangster Abu Salem seeking release from custody, rejecting his claim that he had already served the 25-year prison term stipulated under the terms of his extradition from Portugal.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta upheld an April order of the Bombay High Court, which had thrown out Salem's petition for immediate release as premature and misconceived. The High Court held that, in line with the assurance India gave Portugal at the time of extradition, the 25-year period would end only in November 2030, and that this timeline could not be shortened by applying ordinary prison remission rules.

Under the extradition arrangement between the two countries, Salem cannot be sentenced to death and his imprisonment cannot exceed 25 years.

Appearing for Salem, senior lawyer Rishi Malhotra argued that the period he spent as an undertrial should be set off against his sentence. He also contended that remission earned for good conduct counts as part of the actual imprisonment and must be factored into the 25-year calculation. Salem relied on the judgment in Swami Shraddananda v State of Karnataka to press his case, claiming that once the undertrial period and earned remission were added together, his total imprisonment came to roughly 25 years and he was therefore entitled to release.

The Supreme Court's verdict came on Salem's challenge to the High Court order. Salem, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, was extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005, following a lengthy legal battle.