Mumbai:
In a sensational revelation by Team News Nation, it has emerged that a terrorist outfit had offered ‘supari' to Dawood Ibrahim for killing underworld don Abu Salem in jail.
Mumbai Police had recently filed an affidavit in the High Court, saying Abu Salem should not be produced anywhere outside the Arthur Road Jail and also demanded the arrangement of video conferencing for him.
There has been a threat to the life of Salem, who was once a close associate of Dawood and now it has come to light that he is on the target list of an international terror group.
The reasons behind the involvement of a terrorist group in the attack are said to be Dawood’s declining popularity in the underworld and Salem’s connections with other intelligence agencies.
After his split with Dawood, Salem also leaked crucial information about the don and the underworld to the intelligence agencies. It is believed that due to these reasons, a prominent terrorist organisation built pressure on Dawood to kill Salem.
Though the name of the terrorist organisation has not been revealed yet, but News Nation's revelation indicates that the shadow of terror has begun influencing the underworld.
A day after mysterious attack on Abu Salem, reports surfaced saying that D Company member and close aide of Dawood -- Chhota Shakeel have taken the responsibility of the attack. However, other reports suspect that the main conspirator of the attack was none other than but Salem himself.
According to media reports, Salem might have plotted the attack to push for his case for repatriation to Portugal from where he was extradited to India in 2005. His lawyer on Friday, June 28 already expressed his plan to move the court seeking permission to repatriate Salem to Portugal.
The attacker -- Devendra Jagtap, aka JD, was known close to Salem and it was not possible for the former to open fire at the latter over a minor altercation, media reports quoted sources as saying.
Meanwhile, many started questioning -- why did Jagtap miss Salem and hit him only on his hand when the incident took place in an open area. Salem, an accused of 1993 Bomaby blasts case, was shot twice inside the premise of Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai. However, the gangster sustained minor injury on his hand.
This was the second attack on Salem after he was extradited from Portugal in 2005. The previous attack took place in Mumbai's Arthur Road jail three years ago. He was moved to Taloja Central Jail over security concerns but it seems destiny had the same story for him here as well.
Salem was arrested along with his girlfriend Monica Bedi, a Bollywood actor, in London in 2002 for travelling on fake passports. He was extradited from Portugal three years later for his alleged role in the serial blasts in the country's financial capital that claimed 257 lives besides injuring several.
During Salem's extradition, India had assured the Portuguese authorities that it would not go for Salem's hanging or keep him behind bars for over 25 years, which form key requirements in extradition rules in Europe.
