Abu Salem strikes again?

Prasad said Salem referred to the acquittal of some of his men charged with the murder of builder Pradeep Jain and told the builder that he had to make good the Rs 20 lakh he spent fighting the case. Six Abu Salem men were arrested under TADA for the March 1995 murder of Pradeep Jain in Andheri after Jain apparently refused to sell off some property of his worth several crores to another city landshark. But only last week, a TADA court acquitted them of the charge of murder.

In other quarters the question being raised is: Was it possible to have saved Kumar’s life? He had received several threatening calls from Abu Salem demanding Rs 2 crore. The last threatening call was allegedly made about ten days back. Though Gulshan Kumar had not notified the police, Salem, days after the attack on Rai, had proclaimed to this newspaper his intentions to “knock out” a prominent film personality in "filmy style". The police said that they were investigating if the music baron had actually paid Rs 50 lakh protection money to Abu Salem.

Joint Commissioner Charan Singh Azad told this newspaper that Gulshan Kumar never reported to the police that he was being threatened by gangsters. “Police protection could have been provided after ascertaining the threat perception,”added Azad. According to Joint Commissioner (Adm) T K Chowdhury, the commissioner of police S C Malhotra office today received phone calls from several film personalities seeking police cover. We are considering it, he added.