Police submits interim report on Abu Salem's picture with 'wife'

Mumbai: Thane police on Wednesday submitted an interim report about its inquiry into the photograph of gangster Abu Salem and his alleged wife, published by sections of media here.

"We have filed an interim report on the photograph that appeared recently in sections of media to a TADA court. An Additional Commissioner level officer had conducted the inquiry," said CBI Special Prosecutor Deepak Salvi.

Salvi also sought four weeks' time to further inquire into the matter. Special TADA judge G A Sanap took the report (presented in a sealed cover) on record and granted additional time.

Earlier, the judge had directed the Thane police to conduct an inquiry after media reported about Salem's marriage with a girl 'over the phone' during a train journey in January this year when he was being taken by police to Lucknow for a court hearing.

The court took a suo-moto notice of the report. The report said the 'nikah' was performed by a kazi in Mumbai over the phone and Salem's nephew advocate Rashid Ansari and some policemen were 'witnesses' to the marriage. Salem, speaking to reporters in the court premises later, had said the report was a baseless "rumour".

The gangster, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, was extradited to India from Portugal in 2005.