Abu Salem - Arrests

Arrests

It was in 1991 when Aftab Ahmed Khan, then additional commissioner of police (north west Mumbai) who was also behind the 1991 Lokhandwala Complex shootout, heard of a thug trying to extort money from small time businessmen "I sent two men to go pick him up. When he was presented before me, he appeared to be an ordinary scared miserable chap who thought we were going to bump him off.He was so small at that time. There was nothing impressive about him.".When Salem was in Lisbon fighting India's extradition attempt, the only proof that he was indeed Salem was provided by the fingerprint and photographs taken after his arrest by A A Khan. After being released from jail for his petty extortion attempt, his ascent in the underworld was spectacular. He rose very quickly to become an integral part of the don's inner circle with a specialty in extorting from the Hindi film industry, channeling illicit money into film production, forcibly getting the dates of stars, and usurping overseas rights. He continued more aggressively on this path after his estrangement with Dawood Ibrahim who had by then evolved into being some sort of a paid protector of filmdom. His friction with Shakeel and Dawood's favouring of Shakeel is said to be the reason behind Salem's split from the D-Company. Later, a special team, formed under the leadership of then additional commissioner of police A A Khan, arrested him in the early 1990s from his travel agency in Santacruz, northwest Mumbai. He was handed over to the D N Nagar police station in Andheri, northwest Mumbai, where Salem's in-laws had registered a case against him .But after spending two days in jail, he was released. However he was finally arrested in Lisbon,Portugal and was extradiated to India in November 2005.