Born killer: Abu Salem

Born in 1968, once a close associate of Dawood Ibrahim, he masterminded the Mumbai bomb blast which killed more than 250 people and injured thousands when he was just 25. He started his career as a driver and ended up as one of the most wanted criminal of India with more than 50 cases against him, none of them pettier than the other. He has done it all, be it murder, extortion, drug trafficking, bomb blasts, anything and everything.

Since 2002 he's been in jail in Portugal, while India has pursued his extradition. After years of hard work, a Portugal court cleared his extradition to India to face trial in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. Portuguese authorities handed him over along with Monica Bedi to Indian authorities on the assurance that capital punishment will not be meted on him or his partner Monica Bedi.

There's something particularly apparent about targeting movie stars for extortion and assassination. The extortion part of it is fairly predictable -- I suspect anyone who's either rich or glamorous poses an obvious threat. But what's unique about Abu Salem is how ready he was to murder people in the prime of their creative success. Fortunately, one of his most prominent targets, Rakesh Roshan survived his attacks. Gulshan Kumar was not so lucky.

Abu Salem was someone who seems to have been drawn to glamorous and successful people, and who had the means and the will to destroy them. It's strange; he killed so many people with his boy-next door looks. He apparently had plastic surgery in Portugal. Hence, probably, his boy-next door-looks!!

However, I am just curious on what our government would do now!! Now that his lawyers have managed to find some loopholes in the extradition treaty, they are planning to bring this to the notice of Portugal government. Then what????

Chances are that he will be taken back to Lisbon, all the hard work goes waste and then he never returns to India to face a trial. And the chances seem to be bright too. After all, who wants to face a trial for killing hundreds of people?

It's so ironic that killing a deer gave Salman Khan 5 years of imprisonment and Abu Salem, 13 yrs after killing hundreds of people, still has the opportunity to flee. Is there anything wrong if we, as humans, give more importance to a human's life than to a deer's life? We are humans, carnivorous by nature. Then what is so wrong in killing a deer for eating it? Don't get me wrong, I am an animal lover myself; but I have no qualms in saying that I am a human lover first.

Let's, on an optimistic note, suppose that nothing of this sort happens. I mean, Portugal shows a little mercy and excuses India for breaking the rules of the extradition treaty and this lunatic killer gets a trial in India. What would be outcome of the trial assuming he does not escape before then... The number of people he has killed and the number of cases against him is not small and the fee he is paying to his lawyers is not small either!! The man is no hero, and will pay perhaps less than he ought to for his crimes.

At this point I am tempted to write 'Jai Hind' here but the realist in me tells me 'NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN'. But still I want to stick with 'Jai Hind'.