New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by Mohammed Ahmed Salem Abbasi, widely known as Abu Salem, seeking early release from jail, stating the request was made without sufficient legal grounds. A two-judge bench led by Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta found no flaw in the earlier order passed by the Bombay High Court in April, which had refused to entertain the plea.
Abu Salem, one of the most closely linked figures in the 1993 serial blasts that rocked Mumbai, has been serving a life sentence since his conviction. The blasts, carried out across multiple locations in the city on March 12, 1993, killed over 250 people and injured hundreds more. Salem was convicted alongside several co-accused in connection with the terror attacks and has spent decades behind bars.
The accused had approached the court arguing that he should be granted premature release based on certain provisions under Indian penal law. However, the Supreme Court examined the arguments and found that the Bombay High Court had correctly turned down the application. The apex court observed that the conditions for early release were not satisfied and that the earlier judicial decision deserved to remain undisturbed.
Legal sources indicated that Salem's counsel had attempted to rely on remission benefits and early release clauses applicable to life-term convicts. But the courts found these arguments untenable given the gravity of the offences and the nature of the conviction. The 1993 Mumbai blasts are among the deadliest terrorist attacks in India's modern history, and convictions in the case have consistently attracted stringent judicial scrutiny.
Salem, who has spent much of his incarceration in Tihar Jail before being shifted to other facilities, has faced multiple legal battles over the years regarding parole, bail, and prison conditions. This latest dismissal adds to a long line of rejected pleas from the accused, who remains incarcerated and is unlikely to see freedom anytime soon.
