A Terrorist and Disruptive Activities court Saturday extended the police custody of extradited gangster Abu Salem in the Pradeep Jain murder case after Anti-Terrorist Squad of city police said they needed to investigate whether weapons used in the Jain killing formed part of the arms consignment smuggled into the country for causing the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai.
Designated Judge P V Bavkar extended the police custody of Salem till January 3 on a plea made by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.
Seeking Salem's custody, Nikam argued that Salem had revealed during interrogation that co-accused Riaz Siddique, held in Pradeep Jain murder case, had accompanied him to the residence of film actor Sanjay Dutt to hand over arms prior to 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai.
The prosecutor said ATS wanted to find out from Salem whether weapons used in the Jain killing formed part of the same arms consignment used for the 1993 blasts.
However, defence lawyer Ashok Sarogi opposed police custody saying the ATS has got all the information from Salem so far and there was no need for the extension of the custody.
The public prosecutor also alleged that defence lawyers were trying to "sabotage" the investigations by making "false" allegations against the ATS. He referred to allegations, which said Salem was under pressure not to sign his bail petition.
He also alleged that defence lawyers were "provoking" the gangster to target ATS by telling the court that he was being tortured in custody.
Nikam urged that the defence lawyers may be restrained from meeting the accused in the custody so that the probe can be carried out smoothly.
