Abu Salem attacked inside jail: 1 jail officer, 3 policemen suspended

Mumbai: Gangster Abu Salem, who was shot at by another inmate yesterday, is back at Mumbai's Taloja Jail after being kept overnight in hospital. His attacker, a man called Devendra Jagtap, shot him in the hand with a country-made revolver.

One jail officer and three policemen, who have been found guilty in a preliminary enquiry, have been suspended from duty.  The Maharashtra government has ordered a high-level probe into the attack.

Salem's lawyer has said he will appeal in court that his client is not safe in Mumbai and should be repatriated to Portugal from where he was extradited in 2005.

Salem's injury is minor, despite his attacker being a known sharpshooter, and police sources say they do not rule out the possibility that the attack could have been staged.

The gangster was arrested in Lisbon in 2002 along with his girlfriend, actor Monica Bedi, for travelling with fake passports. He was extradited from Portugal three years later for his alleged role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, which left 257 dead and 713 injured.

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Yesterday, Jagdap reportedly fired two rounds at Salem at around 8:30 pm. He is in jail in connection with the murder of an advocate named Shahid Azmi.

Police are investigating how he sneaked a gun into the jail premises. He has allegedly told the cops that it was delivered to him by an associate who came to visit him at the prison a few days ago. He has also allegedly claimed that he shot at Salem after an altercation between the two over an extortion business they allegedly run from inside the jail.

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This is the second attack on the gangster inside a jail after he was deported in 2005.

While getting Salem extradited, India had given an executive assurance to Portugal that it would not press any charge which would entail death penalty and would not keep him behind bars for more than 25 years.