A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court will hear the plea of extradited gangster Abu Salem on June 30. The plea challenges the chargesheet filed against him for his complicity in the murder of Ajit Dewani, former secretary to actress Manisha Koirala.
On April 15, police had filed a chargesheet against Salem, charging him and his associate Shah Alam with the murder of Dewani. The duo was charged under the provisions of MCOCA, IPC and Arms Act.
Salem's lawyers have challenged the filing of chargesheet saying Indian government had assured a Portugal court that they were seeking his extradition only for the purpose of trial. In this case, they argued, further investigations had been conducted after he was brought here, thus violating extradition conditions.
The lawyers also claimed that they are in possession of certain documents, which indicated that extradition conditions had been violated.
Dewani was murdered allegedly by Salem's hired assassins in June 2001 over ransom pay-off issue. Salem, in his confession (later retracted) has said that his men had gone to coerce Dewani into paying ransom, but they shot him dead when Dewani abused them.
Earlier, a TADA court, hearing the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blast case, had dismissed a similar plea of Salem and observed the extradition conditions had not been violated.
Complete coverage: Abu Salem's extradition