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India-Pakistan
Abu Salem sings under narco test
2007-08-17
Bollywood big daddy Subhash Ghai had paid gangster Dawood IbrahimÂ’s brother Anees between Rs 20 and 25 lakh in extortion money, incarcerated don Abu Salem told investigators under the influence of truth serum in Bangalore in December 2005. Producers Rakesh Roshan and J P Dutta, he said, had not paid even a dime. Ghai was not available for comment. When asked if he knew any policemen, Salem said that the one policeman he knew was Mumbai encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma. Salem admitted that he was guilty of only one thing: loving Monica Bedi. Hamne sirf pyar kiya tha .
"And if loving her is a crime, then let me be guilty."
The transcript of Abu SalemÂ’s narco-analysis, now in the possession of Star News, has the gangster naming Chhota Shakeel and Anees Ibrahim in almost every murder and extortion case in which he is suspected to have played a part. A drugged-out Salem, who had been administered sodium pentothal, answered questions on a number of crimes from murder and extortion to the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.
"Another glass of giggle juice, sahib?"
"Yesh, yesh. I shank the Lushitania too, y'know!"
Salem said that he was living in fear that Mumbai's gangsters - Dawood Ibrahim, Anees Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel and Chhota Rajan-were out to finish him. Dawood, he said, was angry with him for giving the CBI information about the blasts.

When contacted Pradeep Sharma told TOI, "The maximum number of Salem men have been killed by me in encounters. I was the first to arrest Salem gang members involved in the murder of Ajit Dewani (secretary of Manisha Koirala). When he was extradited, he specifically told the CBI not to put him in police custody under my supervision."

Confessions under the influence of drugs, say officials, are not valid evidence in a court of law. One of the chief reasons for this is that this is not a fool-proof method. But it helps to piece together a case by providing valuable insight, explain investigators.
"F'r example, we believe we'll be able to solve JonBenet Ramsey's murder once and for all!"
It remains to be seen how much the investigation stands to gain from Salem's 'confessions'. Anees's name crops up repeatedly. Anees and Shakeel are named for builder Om Prakash Kukreja's death ("Shakeel made the plan and Anees supplied the weapons from Bhendi Bazaar"); it was Anees who gave the supari (contract killing) for Subhash Ghai and director Ram Gopal Varma. Anees is named again in the murder of cassette baron Gulshan Kumar. Salem denied that music director Nadeem Khan (suspected of being involved) had anything to do with the killing.

Salem said that Anees made him make extortion calls to builders, but gave him very little for his efforts: Kabhi das-panch haat de deta thaa . (Sometimes, he would give me 5 or 10 per cent of the money).

UP gangster-turned-politician Babloo Srivastava was named as being responsible for Vikram Wahi's death and Chhota Rajan for killing producer Mukesh Duggal and Nepal MP Mirza Dilshad Baig "because he was a Dawood man".

Salim Kurla and Hegiway are named in the blasts case. When asked who Hegiway was, Salem said he was the man who had been sent to kill builder Pradip Jain.

On the personal front, Salem said that one of his aliases was Arsalem Moizin and that his nephew in Lucknow was paying his legal bills. He also talked about his fascination with the film world, and how he had rented a theatre in Chicago called Discipline.
Posted by:john frum

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