The Supreme Court on Monday has ordered the Central Government to honour the commitment given by it to the Portuguese Government and ordered release of gangster Abu Salem on his completing his 25-year sentence in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.

India had guaranteed Portugal that the Abu Salem would not be sentenced beyond 25 years while requesting his extradition in 2002.

The bench of Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh said the Central government should come forward and advise the President of India to exercise his power under Article 72 of the Constitution and the national commitment on completion of his sentence.

The court order says that the necessary papers should be forwarded within a month of completion of 25 years.

The court also said that the government can itself exercise the power of remission under CrPC within the time period of one month upon completion of 25 years.

A special TADA court on February 25, had awarded life imprisonment to Salem in another case for murdering Mumbai-based builder Pradeep Jain in 1995 along with his driver Mehndi Hassan.

Abu Salem is a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case and was extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005, after a prolonged legal battle.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday listed a plea filed by Shivani Saxena, one of the accused in the AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper Scam, for disposal on December 7.

A Single Judge Bench of Justice Rekha Palli was hearing a plea seeking suspension/withdrawal/cancellation of the Lookout circular (LOC) issued against Shivani Saxena, for allegedly siphoning kickbacks in the AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper deal.

Advocate R.K. Handoo, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, informed the court that she is back from Switzerland. On account of the pleadings being complete, he requested the court to schedule the matter for final disposal.

Advocate Zoheb Hussain, appearing on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), apprised the court that the petitioner informed the ED one day before travelling to Switzerland and hence, Consular supervision was not possible. He sought for permission to file an affidavit regarding the same.

Shivani was arrested on July 17, 2017 by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 for facilitating kickbacks in the AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper Scam Case. 

AgustaWestland, the British subsidiary of Finmeccanica, had allegedly paid Rs 423 crore (58 million Euros) in kickbacks to acquire a contract for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP Choppers to the Indian Airforce.

The money allegedly paid by AgustaWestland, was siphoned off to Interstellar Technologies Ltd in Mauritius and others, who in turn siphoned it to UHY Saxena Ltd and Matrix Holding Ltd. Shivani is a director in UHY Saxena Ltd and Matrix Holding Ltd.

On January 1, 2014, the Indian Government scrapped the contract with AgustaWestland on breach of contractual obligation and alleged charges of paying kickbacks to acquire the said contract.

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The Delhi High Court, on July 9, had suspended Shivani Saxena’s LOC for a period of four weeks and allowed her to travel to Switzerland and UAE, subject to the following conditions:

1. The petitioner shall file an undertaking that she will visit only Switzerland and Dubai, UAE during the aforesaid period. 

2. The petitioner will intimate the details of her itinerary to the respondent, including the place where she would be staying and the time when she would be reaching Zurich, Switzerland in order to enable the respondent to make arrangements for an official from the Embassy to accompany her, if they so desire. 

3. The petitioner will not tamper with any of the evidence and will not operate any bank account while she is in Zurich, Switzerland. 

4. In case any of the above conditions are violated, the bank guarantee will be forfeited to the State. 

5. The petitioner will return back to India within four weeks from the date she leaves the country. 

6. All conditions imposed by the CBI Court by way of the June 28 order, including furnishing security in the sum of Rs 50 lakh, shall be complied with by the petitioner.

New Delhi (ILNS): The founder of the well known terror outfit Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) was yesterday sentenced to 10 years of jail by an Anti-Terrorism Court in Pakistan.

Whether that order can restrict him or his organization from planning further terror activities is to be seen, but precedents show that the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack is not new to house arrests or even proper arrests.

It has been observed that whenever there is pressure on the Pakistani government from international organisations, especially the Financial Action Task Force, to ban terror outfits, the sheer fear of international financial sanctions has forced the government to ‘arrest’ one or more of the many terror masterminds that Pakistani government so carefully nourishes.

On July 17, 2019, Saeed was arrested in Gujranwala by the Punjab Counter Terrorism Department on charges of terror financing. He was subsequently sent to judicial remand by a Gujranwala Anti Terrorism Court (ATC).

On September 27, 2019, at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), USA asked Pakistan to prosecute Saeed, Masood Azhar and other UN-designated terrorists.Last year in November the Pakistan government stated that they will prosecute Saeed. In December 2019, Saeed was indicted by the ATC on the charges of terror financing in several cities of Punjab province of Pakistan. 

As of December 2019, Saeed is in the Kot Lakhpat jail, also known as Central Jail, Lahore. In February 2020, a Pakistan court convicted him for five years for financing terrorism.

Hafiz Saeed has been placed under house arrest on a number of occasions, first when the Indian government blamed him for masterminding the December 2001 attack on its Parliament, and then after the Mumbai train bombings of 2006.

In between December 2001 and March 2002, Saeed was arrested and released three times after the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let) was accused of attacking Indian Parliament.

From August 2006 to October 2006, Hafiz was detained after LeT was linked to multiple train bombs in Mumbai. The JUD chief was placed under house arrest after LeT was blamed for Mumbai attacks.

Then, in 2009, a Pakistani court ruled that the continued house arrest of Jamat-ud-Dawa founder Hafiz Saeed was unconstitutional.

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On January 31, 2017 Saeed and four others were put under house arrest by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti Terrorism Act 1997.

New Delhi: The Delhi District Court has expressed its dissatisfaction over the use of CamScanner – one of the Chinese apps banned by the Indian government – by a lawyer while presenting a bail application before the court.

Special Judge (NDPS) Sunil Chaudhary had received the application for bail through mail and noted in his order that the application filed was scanned using the CamScanner Application which has been banned by the Indian government. The Court, through its order, advised the counsel to avoid using a banned application in legal work in future.

“This is an application for grant of bail as received through mail. The application as filed is scanned with the application CamScanner which has been banned by the Govt of India. The Counsel is advised to avoid the use of a banned application in legal work in future,” the order read.

The Special NDPS Court, however, issued notice to the IO and asked them to file a reply on the bail application.

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CamScanner is an app used to scan documents, was banned by the Central Government along with 58 other apps that were from Chinese companies. The decision was taken in July in wake of the Indo-China border issues saying that these apps could be a threat to India’s sovereignty and security. The Central government invoked its power under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act stating that private data was being used without authorisation and apps were engaged in activity prejudicial to India’s sovereignty, integrity and defence.

– India Legal Bureau