Don Salem delivered

‘‘He is tired after the 12-hour flight but is cooperating. We expect several cases of heinous crimes to be re-opened after some sustained interrogation,’’ said a key CBI officer.

Produced in the TADA court at 2.45 pm, Salem, wearing faded blue jeans and a striped T-shirt, told the court ‘‘I didn’t get any summons and the CBI didn’t inform me’’ when he was asked why he had not presented himself in court despite being given a date.

‘‘He understands both Hindi and English. He did not wish to inform his relatives of his arrest,’’ said Raman Tyagi, DSP who identified the gangster from his earlier photographs.

Apparently, Salem had no clue he already had a Mumbai lawyer. But advocate O A Siddique told the court that he’d been instructed by relatives—who had heard of the arrest on television—and his lawyers.

‘‘Advocate Mehmood Rashid from Lucknow and his lawyer from London have spoken to me,’’ said Siddique, who was allowed to speak to Salem briefly and then argued the case on his behalf.

Special Public Prosecutor C Sharma requested for 30 days’ custody, citing the nature of the case. ‘‘Only he can explain where the arms and ammunition was procured from,’’ said Sharma.

In the end, the court granted 12 days’ police custody, directing that Salem be given medical treatment, a chance to meet his lawyer on alternate days for an hour each and permission to exchange information with Monica Bedi on legal matters. Bedi has already been dispatched to Hyderabad where she is wanted for using a fake passport in the name of Sana Malik.

For the CBI top brass, Salem’s extradition is a big victory since the agency, with help from the diplomatic corps, succeeded in keeping the sensitive operation under wraps. This is despite the fact that the first CBI team landed in Lisbon on October 30 to facilitate Salem’s handover. In the Mumbai blasts case, 286 witnesses have already been examined since the case was registered by the CBI 12 years ago. Under provisions of Section 299 of the CrPC, the CBI will now read out testimonies of relevant witnesses to Abu Salem in the special TADA court. Salem will then be given an opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses who have deposed against him.

CBI officials estimate that testimonies of 15-20 witnesses may be relevant for his prosecution. Significantly, the exclusion of award of death penalty to Salem was one of the assurances given by New Delhi to Lisbon during the long-drawn extradition proceedings. Salem and Bedi were arrested in Lisbon on September 18, 2002.

CBI officials were reluctant to confirm finer details of the handover and simply stated that Salem returned on a ‘‘chartered’’ flight to Mumbai. But it’s learnt that a special plane of the RAW may have been used for the hush-hush operation. Officials accompanying Salem say that he was kept handcuffed during the flight while Bedi wasn’t.