Abu Salem
Abu Salem, a prime suspect in the 1993 bombings that struck
Mumbai's stock exchange along with trains, hotels and gas stations,
killing 257 people.
He is also alleged to be involved in the murder of Bollywood
music industry czar Gulshan Kumar in 1999, and the killings of
Ajit Diwani and Pradeep Jain, both associated with the Hindi film
industry. Attacks on leading filmmakers such as Rajiv Rai and
Rakesh Roshan also reportedly pointed towards Salem's involvement.
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D-company sealed Salem's fate
Agencies
Mumbai, Nov 12: It may sound a bit strange but it is true that
Abu Salem who is today under the custody of CBI is chiefly due
to Dawood Ibrahim. It was Dawood who, four years ago, through
his contacts alerted American intelligence agencies in the Gulf
about Salem's presence in USA and his multi-million property deals
in New Jersey. That crucial tip-off marked the beginning of Salem's
end.
The rift between Dawood and Salem, which culminated in what is
regarded as the mother of all betrayals in Mumbai's underworld,
began in 1996. Police sources say that Salem started moving away
from the Karachi-based don in that year. The chief instigator
was Chhota Shakeel, Dawood's chief lieutenant, who would constantly
tell him that Salem was getting very ambitious and was not to
be trusted. And although Salem contributed more more moolah to
the D Company's kitty than Shakeel, Dawood became wary of him-even
Salem's closeness to Dawood's brother, Anees, did not help.
Shakeel managed to create so much doubt in Dawood's mind about
Salem that the don decided to downgrade Salem in his gang's hierarchy.
Salem, who was on par with Shakeel, found himself increasingly
marginalised. In 1998, he decided to part ways and set up an independent
extortion racket focussing on Bollywood. He teamed up with an
NRI in London and coerced several Hindi film producers to give
the overseas distribution rights of their movies to him. He also
had a craze for Indian actresses-sources say a former beauty queen,
who was linked to a prominent Mumbai businessman, was compelled
by Salem to entertain him in London a few years ago.
Salem had already duped a Sharjah bank of millions of dollars
in tandem with Anees and coupled with the money he made from Bollywood,
he entered the big league. Police sources say he has several millions
stashed away in banks in Abu Dhabi and other Gulf cities.
It was when he started investing in real estate in New Jersey
that Dawood's men tipped off American intelligence operatives
in Dubai about Salem's activities and his travelling on forged
papers. Before the Americans could lay their hands on him, Salem
slipped out of Uncle Sam's country and sneaked into Portugal.
Following a tip-off from Washington, the Portuguese police picked
him up Monica Bedi in September 2002. The news of his arrest brought
much more joy to Dawood and Shakeel than it did even to the Indian
government.
Significantly, Salem's financial dealings with certain Bollywood
folk were so strong that they felt it necessary to meet him while
he was in the Lisbon prison. One of them is a controversial, big-time
actor and the other is a producer of films and manufacturer of
video cassette and DVDs of Hindi films.
*Rift between Dawood and Salem culminated in betrayals
*Salem moved away from Don in 1997
*Chief instigator was Chhota Shakeel
*Charged Salem as ambitious
*Salem gave more moolah to D-Company than Shakeel
