‘You were convicted under TADA’: Supreme Court dismisses Abu Salem’s ‘illegal custody’ plea in 1993 Mumbai blasts case

In response to the Supreme Court’s query whether there were any rules prevailing in Maharashtra, as per which remission can be granted to a TADA convict, Malhotra said that Rule 4 of the Maharashtra Prisons (Remission System) Rules, 1962, talks about different kinds of remission.

Malhotra added that Salem was seeking ordinary and annual good conduct remission. He cited the additional affidavit filed by the Inspector General of Prisons and Correctional Services before the HC, stating that, as of March 31, 2025, Salem had completed only 19 years, 5 months, and 18 days of his prison term.

Terming it an “arithmetical error”, Malhotra said, “I have surpassed 10 months. It is a case of habeas corpus, illegal custody”.

When Malhotra submitted that Salem is undergoing illegal custody for more than 10 months, Justice Nath said, “You have stayed for 25 years for not doing something good to the society. You were convicted under TADA”.

The SC bench asked him to approach the Bombay High Court against the interim findings.

Hearing Salem’s plea, the high court on July 7, 2025, made a prima facie observation that he had not completed 25 years of incarceration to qualify for remission of his sentence.

From extradition to arrest and time in prison

Salem, who was transferred from Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai to Nashik Central Prison in 2024, was extradited to India from Portugal on November 11, 2005. He was arrested on November 24, 2005, and subsequently tried for the offences with which he had been charged.

In September 2017, Salem was convicted in the Mumbai serial blasts case. In 2015, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1995 murder of Mumbai-based builder Pradeep Jain. He then moved the SC, contending that the TADA court’s decision violated the terms of his extradition to India from Portugal.

Salem contended that under the agreement the government had on December 17, 2002, through the then deputy prime minister L K Advani, assured Portugal that New Delhi would exercise its powers to ensure he is “not visited by death penalty or imprisonment for a term beyond 25 years”.

On July 11, 2022, the SC rejected his plea that the period he spent in jail in Portugal (from September 18, 2002, to December 10, 2005, when he was handed over to Indian authorities) be set off from the remainder of his sentence in India. The top court said that his detention in the Bombay blasts case will be considered to have begun on December 10, 2005.

The apex court also said that the Centre was bound to advise the President to exercise his powers of remission to release Salem after he completes 25 years in prison, in accordance with the sovereign assurance.

In October 2024, Salem argued before the TADA court that he had nearly reached a 25-year term, including time spent as an undertrial and later as a convict, along with nearly three years of remission he was entitled to under prison rules. After this was rejected, he moved the Bombay High Court.