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Abu Salem admits playing role in 1993 Mumbai blasts

     Mumbai: Underworld don Abu Salem on Sunday admitted to playing a role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts during interrogation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) here. According to the CBI sources, Salem accepted that he had supplied arms and ammunition for the blast that rocked the country's financial capital twelve years ago. They further added that Salem was co-operating with the investigating agency during interrogation. In his statement, Salem said that he had visited Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt's Bandra residence in company of co-accused Hanif Kadawala, Samir Hingora and Baba Musa Chauhan with arms and ammunition prior to the bomb blasts on March 12, 1993, sources said. Salem, who along with Bedi was brought to Mumbai by the CBI on Friday morning after a Lisbon court authorised their extradition, is currently in a 12-day police custody by a special TADA court on Friday. The extradition of Salem is likely to help in uncovering the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts and further strengthen the case against Dawood Ibrahim who has been declared as a Global Terrorist by the United States. Salem's interrogation is also expected to blow the lid off certain prominent personalities against whom the Mumbai police and the CBI had failed to gather any evidence regarding their links with the underworld. Several other major cases which are pending against Salem include the murder of music baron Gulshan Kumar in 1997, assault on filmmakers Rajeev Rai and Subhash Ghai in 1997, murder of Chembur builder Om Prakash Kukreja in 1995, murder of builder Pradeep Jain in 1994 and extortion threats to many film personalities.

     Meanwhile, underworld don Abu Salem's lawyer denied the claims made by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that Salem had admitted to playing a role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts. Ruling out any confession in this regard by his client, Salem's lawyer OA Siddique told a news channel that they had already filed an application that Salem did not want to make any confession, so there was no question of it. He also said that he was trying to know who was the CBI official who made the announcement of Salems confession. Earlier today, the CBI official had said that Salem had admitted to playing a role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts during interrogation by the CBI. CBI sources had said that Salem accepted that he had supplied arms and ammunition for the blast that rocked the country's financial capital twelve years ago, adding that he said that he had visited Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt's Bandra residence in company of co-accused Hanif Kadawala, Samir Hingora and Baba Musa Chauhan with arms and ammunition prior to the bomb blasts on March 12, 1993. Salem, who along with Bedi was brought to Mumbai by the CBI on Friday morning after a Lisbon court authorised their extradition, is currently in a 12-day police custody by a special TADA court on Friday. Over 50 criminal cases are pending against the Indias second most wanted, including the murder of music baron Gulshan Kumar in 1997, assault on filmmakers Rajeev Rai and Subhash Ghai in 1997, murder of Chembur builder Om Prakash Kukreja in 1995, murder of builder Pradeep Jain in 1994 and extortion threats to many film personalities.