The Bombay high court on Wednesday rejected gangster Abu Salem Abdul Qayoom Ansari’s plea seeking his immediate release from jail, claiming that he had completed his 25-year jail term on March 31, 2025, in the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings case.
A bench of justices AS Gadkari and Kamal Khata said Ansari was yet to complete the actual prison term of 25 years and therefore his petition was premature.
Ansari’s lawyer, Farhana Shah, said the Supreme Court in 2022 upheld her client’s plea that he cannot be sentenced to a term of over 25 years in view of the assurance given to Portugal, where he was extradited from. She added that the Supreme Court had ordered that he be released on completing the 25-year prison term.
Ansari filed the petition in February 2025, claiming he was entitled to remission of the time he spent as an undertrial prisoner from October 12, 2005, as the Supreme Court recognised. The plea added that he had earned regular and special remissions, like all other convicts, since his extradition to India in November 2005.
Ansari sought his immediate release, claiming he had completed the 25-year term, including pre-trial detention and remissions.
The central and state governments contested the petition, saying he had served only 19-and-a-half years until March 2025. In May 2025, the central government filed an affidavit, saying Ansari’s calculation was incorrect. “He has attempted to combine two separate conviction periods undergone in separate cases to arrive at a conclusion that he is completing the conviction period of 24 years 9 months as on December 31, 2024,” the affidavit said. It added that the Centre would abide by the maximum sentence of 25 years in November 2030.
The state government gave January 31, 2046, as the probable release date.
Inspector general (prisons and correctional services) Suhas Warke said Ansari has been convicted for life imprisonment in different and serious cases. He added his prison term until March 31, 2025, accounted for only 19 years, five months, and 18 days.
Apart from the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings case, Ansari was charged with delivering a consignment of arms and ammunition, including to the house of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, in January 1993. Nearly two months later, 12 explosions rocked prime locations across Mumbai, killing 257 people.
Ansari fled on a fake passport to Portugal, where he was detained in September 2002, and extradited to India three years later. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in September 2017. The Supreme Court in 2022 commuted the sentence to 25 years of imprisonment, as per assurance to Portugal.
Curated by Dr. Elena Rodriguez
