MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed authorities to file a reply to a petition filed by Abu Salem, who is currently serving a life sentence at Nashik prison for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.
Earlier this year, Salem petitioned the High Court to be provided with an official release date. His petition, filed on January 30 through Advocate Farhana Shah, argued that based on a Supreme Court ruling, he cannot be imprisoned for more than 25 years.
He stated that his total incarceration should be counted as 24 years, nine months, and 16 days as of December 31, 2024, since he was arrested on November 11, 2005, in Portugal in connection with the 1993 blasts case. He was deported to India, where he faced a separate trial and was convicted on September 7, 2017, and sentenced to life imprisonment by a special TADA court.
In February 2015, he was also convicted in a builder’s murder case and sentenced to life. In his appeal, the Supreme Court on July 11, 2022, commuted the life imprisonment to 25 years and directed that the state could exercise the power of remission a month before his 25-year term.
Last June, he said, a special TADA court granted him a set-off from his initial arrest in 2005 until the date of judgment in 2017. His contention is that when pre-trial and post-conviction time spent in custody, along with permissible remission based on the prison manual, are considered, he has completed 25 years and should be set free.
His petition states that based on his “annual good conduct,” he earned a remission of almost 2 years and 10 months, and by February 27, 2024, he had already “undergone a total sentence of 23 years, 7 months, and 28 days.”
A division bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Advait Sethna sought a reply from the state and Centre by April 25 and posted the matter on April 29 for further hearing.