The TADA court in Mumbai on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of extradited gangster Abu Salem and four others till March 31 in the Pradeep Jain murder case. The other accused in the case are Riaz Siddiqui, Naeem Khan, Mehedi Hassan and Virendrakumar Jhamb.
City-based builder Pradeep Jain was murdered, allegedly on Salem's orders, in March 1995 after he refused to hand over a prime location plot to another builder. Salem ordered Jain's murder after the two had a tiff over phone, it is alleged.
While Siddiqui is alleged to have put the plan to kill Jain into action, Naeem is said to have managed the financial part of the operation. Mehedi Hassan is believed to have driven Jain's assailants to the murder spot, while Jhamb, himself a builder, is alleged to have worked as a conduit for Salem, when the latter demanded ransom from Jain's family in the aftermath of the murder.
Salem was tranferred to judicial custody from the custody of Anti-terrorist Squad -- which is probing Jain case -- on January 17. He will be produced on Wednesday before the special TADA court in Arthur Jail premises, which is hearing the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case
He will also be produced before special MCOCA court of Additional Sessions Judge Abhay Thipsay, which is hearing Ajit Dewani murder case.
Both these courts had remanded Salem to judicial custody till March 1 in the last hearing.
Complete coverage: Abu Salem's extradition