The Supreme Court on Monday, the 11th of July, said the Centre is bound to honor its commitment given to Portugal and release gangster Abu Salem on completion of his 25-year sentence in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.

Salem had said his sentence could not exceed 25 years as per a solemn assurance given by India to Portugal for his extradition in 2002.

A bench of Justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh said the Central government is bound to advise the President of India for the exercise of power under Article 72 of the Constitution and the national commission on completion of his sentence.

“The necessary papers be forwarded within a month of completion of 25 years. The government can itself exercise the power of remission under CrPC within one month upon completion of 25 years,” the bench said.

On February 25, 2015, a special TADA court awarded life imprisonment to Salem in another case for murdering Mumbai-based builder Pradeep Jain in 1995 along with his driver Mehndi Hassan.

Salem, also a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, was extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005, after a prolonged legal battle.

The 1993 Bombay bombings were a series of 12 terrorist bombings that took place in Bombay, Maharashtra, on 12 March 1993. The single-day attacks resulted in 257 fatalities and 1,400 injuries.

The attacks were coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim, leader of the Mumbai-based international organized crime syndicate D-Company. Ibrahim was believed to have ordered and helped organize the bombings through his subordinates, Tiger Memon and Yakub Memon.

The Supreme Court of India gave its judgment on 21 March 2013, after over 20 years of judicial proceedings, upholding the death sentence against suspected ringleader Yakub while commuting the previous death sentences against 10 others to life in prison.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench rejected his curative petition, saying the grounds raised by him do not fall within the principles laid down by the apex court in 2002, the Maharashtra government executed Yakub on 30 July 2015.

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