Former Foreign Secretary, now India’s High Commissioner to the UK Ranjan Mathai, told the special TADA court in Mumbai that the Ministry of External Affairs had not held any meeting regarding the additional charges slapped against gangster Abu Salem.
Mr. Mathai deposed through a video-link before the judge G A Sanap who is conducting the trial of remaining accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. The court had earlier convicted 100 accused in the case, including Yakub Memon who was hanged in July this year.
Salem, who is an accused in the case and who was extradited from Portugal in 2005, had sought Mr. Mathai’s deposition, claiming that there had been two meetings of top ministry officials where it was decided that some of the additional charges against Salem would be dropped. According to Salem’s lawyers, meetings were held on April 26, 2012 and January 7, 2013. However, Mr. Mathai yesterday rejected the claim. Mr. Mathai’s deposition will continue today.