Abu Salem seeks court’s nod to tie the knot

Mumbai: Extradited gangster Abu Salem, who is lodged in Thane’s Taloja jail, has sought the permission of a special court to get married at a registrar’s office. He is awaiting the pronouncement of punishment in the wake of his conviction in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. Salem’s lawyer Farhana Shah on Monday submitted two judgments — including one of the Bombay high court — to show that there have been instances where convicts were granted temporary bail or parole to tie the knot, and hence her client should also be allowed to visit the marriage registrar’s office to get his marriage solemnised.

Ms Shah has said that, as per citations of these Bombay and Delhi high court orders, Salem can be granted temporary bail or parole to get his marriage solemnised.

It may be recalled that 25-year-old Mumbra resident Sayyed Bahar Kauser, on June 15 last year, had moved an application before the special TADA court seeking permission to get married to Salem, claiming that if denied permission to marry him she would commit suicide.

The girl claimed in her plea that her life has been ruined since her name had been linked with Salem and her photographs were published in news reports. “I feel like committing suicide owing to the cheap publicity. As I have been defamed without any reason, I would now like to take a bold step and get married to Salem,” read her application. She claimed that police had showed a photograph of Salem and her to many people and asked whether she was married to him, defaming her. She said that because of this, she could not marry anybody else and was left with no other choice but to either marry the gangster or end her life.

The gangster had filed a two-page reply to her application fifteen days later and had agreed to marry her. His reply read, “I apologise from the bottom of my heart to the applicant for the sufferings she had to undergo because of my name being tagged with her.” Salem in his reply had agreed to marry her and had sought temporary bail from TADA court to visit the marriage registrar’s officer and get married. However, his application is still pending in the court.

There were reports that Salem had already married Kauser on a train when he was being taken to UP for a hearing in a case pending against him. However, the police, after conducting an enquiry, had denied this in its report.

Special TADA court judge G.A. Sanap has asked the CBI to file a reply on Salem’s fresh application.