Salim the Disposable (Tracing the absconder Salim Kurla) continues...

There was still some work to be done which included searches of Salim’s hotel room and his flat. We asked our officers to complete the remaining task before the day broke.

At 0245 hours the CBI team reached Hotel Heritage and found his wife Rizwana with three children in Room 437. Rizwana had the key of the flat in Chikoti Gardens from where they had fled that morning. Quickly, searches of the hotel room and the flat were made in the presence of independent witnesses. However, nothing of interest emerged. Salim’s Fiat car and scooter were seized and deposited at Police Station Begumpet.

Salim Kurla was produced before the Magistrate, 11th Court, Secunderabad on January 22, 1995 and his transit (or journey) remand taken to enable us to produce him before the Special Court trying the serial bomb blast cases in Bombay. He was taken by the 1630 hours Indian Airlines flight to Bombay. During the flight, Salim Kurla was seated between Raman and Pardesi. Sunil Shetty, a well-known film actor, was also on board and saw Salim. Unaware that he was in CBI custody, Shetty smiled and waved at Salim. Apparently, the two had met on several occasions earlier and knew each other rather well. During his interrogation Salim disclosed he had extorted Rs 5 lakh from Govinda, another Bollywood star. After interrogation he was sent to judicial custody, pending the on-going trial of the case.

On May 28, 1997, after more than two years of judicial custody, Salim Kurla was granted interim bail on health grounds. His bail petition mentioned uncontrolled diabetes, hypertension and backache as his ailments. He often got admitted to hospitals to create documentary proof of his protracted illness as a ruse to get his bail extended. Reportedly, he had resumed extortion and other criminal activities during this period.

Meanwhile, internecine gang warfare between Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Rajan, his friend-turned-foe, had reached its peak. The Dawood gang, traditionally of ‘secular’ composition, where loyalty and performance mattered and not religion, had, after the serial blasts, split vertically on communal lines.

To be continued.....