New Delhi, December 01: Underworld don Abu Salem today opposed framing of extortion charges in a Delhi court on the ground that the Indian government did not mention about his impending prosecution under harsher penal provision while seeking his extradition from Protugal.
“The CBI, in the extradition request to Portugal, had said that Salem would be prosecuted under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 384 (extortion) which prescribes a maximum jail term of three years of the IPC,” Arvind Shukla, counsel for the accused, told the court.
“Now, the prosecution wants to frame charges under section 387 (putting a person in fear of life) of the IPC which prescribes maximum jail term of seven years,” he said before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kiran Bansal.
Salem, along with Romesh Sharma, alleged frontman of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, has been booked for allegedly making threat calls to three Delhi-based businesspersons demanding money in 1998.
–Agencies