Court clears Salem gang of bid on film maker

Blue Star
Friday, June 06, 2008
Court clears Salem gang of bid on film maker

Mumbai: A sessions court on Friday acquitted five men involved in a plot to kill film maker Manmohan Shetty in May 2001.

According to the prosecution, Shetty was then the owner of Adlabs Studios and members of the Abu Salem gang were trying to extort money from him. When they failed, they decided to kill him.

There were seven accused in the case but the trial of the two (who have already been acquitted last month for lack of evidence) was separated from the rest.

Police said they had recorded conversations of Salem gang members in which they were planning to kill Shetty. Thereafter five men - Nurul Qadri, Salim Jamadar, Arif Akbar, Siraj Shaikh and Mohammed Ghous - were arrested in a trap laid by police at Fame Adlabs in Andheri. Some weapons and cartridges were also allegedly recovered from them.

However, when the matter reached trial all five were acquitted for lack of evidence. The defence lawyers had cast doubts on the veracity of telephonic conversations that had been recorded by the police.

The accused were out on bail while the case was pending. The two others, who were acquitted in the case - Zamir Ahmed and Mushir Ahmed Iraqi, were arrested from Azamgarh, UP in March 2006.

They were caught by the crime branch after Salem, who was deported to India in 2005, said during his interrogation that the two of them had arranged the weapons that were to be used for attacking Shetty. Interestingly Salem himself was never tried in connection with this case.

According to police officials Salem is being tried only for three cases against him in Mumbai as per the terms under which he was extradited from Portugal. The cases pertain to the ferrying of arms to Mumbai before the serial blasts of 1993, the murder of Manisha Koirala's secretary Ajit Dewani and the killing of builder Pradip Jain.

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