HC defers hearing of Abu Salem plea to Aug 16

Mumbai, Aug 14: The Bombay High Court today deferred till August 16, the hearing of the plea of extradited gangster Abu Salem, challenging the TADA Court order to seperate his trial from that of the other 123 accused in the 1993 serial blasts here that includes cine star Sanjay Dutt.

As Justices D G Deshpande and S A Bobde were unavailable for judicial work, the hearing was deferred.

Earlier, the bench had heard the petition but refused to admit it and also refused to stay the process of commencement of the verdict in the 1993 serial blast case.

The petition was twice heard by the court but had only directed the CBI, state government and other respondents to file a reply in this regard.

In a related development, DIG CBI, O P Chatwal had strongly opposed the don's plea on the grounds that it was not maintainable.

Also, the High Court did not have it in its jurisdiction to hear the petition challenging the designated TADA Court order. The affidavit filed by him also stated that HC was not a proper forum for challenging the TADA Court order and Salem must appeal to the Supreme Court to seek appropriate relief.

However, on the previous occasion while the petition was not listed for hearing, counsel for Abu Salem, advocate Ashok Sarogi had mentioned before the court and argued that the TADA court had fixed August 10th as the date for delivery of the verdict and so his petition must be heard on a priority basis.

Meanwhile, Salem in his petition had challenged the TADA court's order on the ground that while he was deported from Portugal, an agreement was made between the Indian and Portugese government that he would face the ongoing trial and not a separate trial.

The court was told that separation of this trial was the violation of the agreement made between the two governments.

UNI