Brawl in jail: Forensic tests on sharpened spoon,clothes

The sharpened spoon,allegedly used by Dawood Ibrahim aide Mustafa Dossa to assault extradited gangster Abu Salem in the Arthur Road Jail...

The sharpened spoon,allegedly used by Dawood Ibrahim aide Mustafa Dossa to assault extradited gangster Abu Salem in the Arthur Road Jail,and clothes worn by both at the time of the alleged assault have been sent for analysis to the Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratories,Kalina. The lab report may reveal,if the tests yield positive results,clues about who assaulted whom and how the spoon was sharpened.

The alleged assault was reported on July 24. Whenever someone is seriously assaulted during a scuffle,traces of blood,hair or other samples from the victim are likely to be found on the clothes of the accused and vice versa. If tests on Dossas clothes reveal blood stains on the fabric and if the blood matches with that of Salems,they may serve as evidence to establish that Dossa was present when Salem was assaulted. If the attack was preceded or followed by a scuffle and whether there were others involved in it besides the arrested accused and the victim,there are chances that tests on clothes may contain samples of those persons too. This raises the chances of more persons being implicated in the case, a forensic official said.

The weapon used for the crime,the spoon in this case,will also be subjected to tests to ascertain whether there are traces of the victims blood on it. The tests may also reveal the process by which the spoon was sharpened. Whether there were any instruments or crude machinery used or it was rubbed against stones to give it such a shape.

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The Crime Branch had booked Dossa and his associate Abdul Qayyum Sheikh on charges of attempt to murder. Both Dossa and Salem were lodged in barrack no 10 at the jail and Salem had alleged that the accused duo had accosted him and slashed him with the sharp spoon,inflicting injuries on his face.

While being produced in court,Dossa had alleged that Salem had inflicted wounds on himself so that he would be sent back to Portugal,from where he had been extradited.

While prima facie it looks like Salem was assaulted by someone and didnt inflict the injuries himself,we are investigating further. We havent yet got any witnesses who saw the incident and we are investigating whether the spot where the alleged attack took place had CCTV coverage, a Crime Branch officer said.

Salem fears malaria,seeks shift to Arthur Road jail
Abu Salem filed an application before a special TADA court Wednesday,seeking transfer from Taloja jail,which according to him has many malaria patients. Salem was shifted to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai last week. Salem feels he too could contract the disease. Besides,he is also anticipating threat to his life in Taloja, his lawyer Raja Thakur said. Special TADA Judge ST Mahajan has directed Taloja Jail superintendent to file a reply by August 23.

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