THE CHAMELEON: Switching looks and passports, Salem had eluded arrest

Take I: Wednesday, September 18. Lisbon, Portugal. Time: 8 p.m. Place: Expo ground near river Tejo. Autumn is just setting in. Arsalan Mohsin Ali is cruising in his Cherokee jeep when he finds himself being tailed by the Portuguese Police. Ali steps on the gas, only to lose control and crash into the kerb. The officers lend him a hand and cuff him.

Take II: 284, Rua Da Palma Apartments, Martin Moniz. A svelte siren clad in designer togs walks down wooden stairs. The lackey walking alongside cracks a cheap joke as they step outside. Even as their laughter rings into the balmy air, the smiles freeze on their faces. They are surrounded by a team of armed officers who handcuff them and push them into a van while another team of officers rushes to search the apartment.

Crime

HAVENS GET HOT AS HELL FORGING LINKS: Advani's meeting with Nahyan (right) led to intelligence sharing United Arab Emirates was traditionally considered a safe haven by Mumbai dons.That perception changed after the deportation of gangster Aftab Ansari from Dubai to India in February this year. While 9/11 may have led to stricter law enforcement in the UAE, it is the formal intelligence sharing link forged between the CBI and the Emirates police that has made the Gulf too hot for Indian gangsters on the run. In October 2001, Abu Dhabi indicated it was willing to share information on movement of terrorists and criminals in the Emirates with Indian investigating agencies. This was after Home Minister L.K. Advani raised the issue of Abu Salem with Sheikh Mohammed bin Nahyan, the chief of staff of the UAE, during his visit to the Emirates in July last year. It is understood that the CBI and the Intelligence Bureau have shared with their UAE counterparts the list of most wanted Indian gangsters who frequent the UAE. When R.M. Abhyankar, secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, and Said Saad, permanent secretary in the UAE's Foreign Ministry at Abu Dhabi, reviewed the tie-up on September 21, Saad indicated that his government favoured regular contact between the security agencies. The UAE has economic reasons for helping Delhi: over 20 Indian software majors have moved to Dubai in a big way and Indian exports to the UAE stand at $10 billion. Delhi has forged a similar information sharing agreement with Kuwait and is on the verge of concluding a tie-up with Qatar. -Shishir Gupta

This could well have been the climax of a Bollywood blockbuster. And Ali, sporting a Sanjay Dutt hairstyle and demeanour, driving around in flashy jeeps and Mercedes cars, could well have been the archetypal baddie. Except that this is real life. Though the woman, Sana Malik Kamal, was indeed a starlet-also known as Monica Bedi-34-year-old Ali, aka Abu Salem, is among the 20 most wanted men in India, running an underworld empire worth over Rs 300 crore. The IRA dossier (No. A 103/3/1995) cites his involvement in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai and 45 other heinous crimes, including murder, kidnapping and extortion from Bollywood stars and producers.

Salem's arrest was the culmination of 180 days of tracking by officials across three continents. The don was using several passports and identities-among them Ramil Kamal Malik, Danish Beg, Akhil Ahmed Azmi, Arsalan Mohsin Ali and Ramesh Kumar. Police officers in India, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US and Interpol had been tracking Salem on nine cellphone numbers and three satellite phones as he flitted in and out of London, Dubai, Singapore, Kathmandu, Atlantic City, New York, Chicago and Zurich before being trapped in Lisbon.

This is not the first time he has been detained. In 1997, the UAE authorities let off Salem-then travelling as Azmi-after he was arrested in Sharjah. Last year he was detained in Abu Dhabi as Hamid Atiq but slipped away to Nairobi in Kenya. Salem, it would seem, is not third time lucky. Thanks to the FBI which put him on the International Fugitive Tracking system. Besides intercepting Salem's e-mails-which were passed to the CBI-FBI agents also tracked Bedi to confirm their findings.

Salem's end really began in February when the FBI sent a detailed description to the Interpol in Lisbon as they suspected a possible link with the Al-Qaida, which matched the dossier provided by India. Salem apparently acquired his fake passport from the same source as four key suspects probed by the FBI after the 9/11 attack. Interestingly, the FBI also got unsolicited help as a series of e-mails-now believed to have originated from arch rival Chhota Shakeel in Karachi-kept it informed about Salem's movements.

MONICA BEDI

Moll acts out her part Delhi model Monica Bedi's tryst with the underworld began at Mumbai's Copper Chimney restaurant in 1995, where she met small-time crook Vijay Palande. As she did the rounds of the studios, she met producer Mukesh Duggal who was a regular at the Dubai durbar where Salem first spotted her. After Duggal was killed in a gangland war, Bedi took up with Salem, who had confessed his love for her and vowed to help her. Although Bedi did star in the forgettable B-Grade Suraksha in 1995 the big break eluded her. Thanks to Salem's calls, producers began signing up the mobster's moll. Rajiv Rai cast her in his Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat last year after surviving Salem's bullets in 1997. It flopped. Bedi's big moment was opposite Sanjay Dutt in David Dhawan's Jodi No. 1 last year. It too flopped. -Sandeep Unnithan

Indeed, Salem and Bedi would have been nabbed in Lisbon this summer but they slipped out to the US where Salem was trying to set up a legitimate business. But his property-buying binge attracted a decoy from the FBI and Salem fled back to Lisbon.

Lisbon seemed a safe harbour as he could blend in among the large Asian immigrant population from Goa and Mozambique. Salem and Bedi had purchased property, showed downtown Anjos as their domicile and, to the surprise of the Portuguese Police, even acquired a residency permit to live in Portugal. In Lisbon, Salem mostly stayed at a downmarket 25-Euro guesthouse, puzzling his neighbours with a lifestyle rather too high-flying for someone who introduced himself as a Pakistani national and was known to fix travel documents for illegal Asian immigrants.

If only they knew it was Salem. His interests in the overseas rights of Hindi movies and earnings from Bollywood stars' overseas stage shows have fetched him between Rs 70 crore and Rs 100 crore. Investments, extortion, counterfeit currency rackets and hawala operations contribute the rest of the kitty. Abdul Qayum Ansari, the 14-year-old boy who ran away from Sarai Meer near Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh in 1982, is now estimated to be worth over Rs 300 crore.

Salem, now lodged at Estrada Nacional, 2475, Tires Paradede-courtesy Judge Fatima Mata Mouros-may not get to keep his ill-gotten wealth. Charged with carrying illegal travel documents Salem argued for three hours that he was Ali, a Pakistani. But when his fingerprints matched prints taken 18 years ago in Bandra, the judge signed the 90-day detention order. Says Sara Pina, press attache of the Portuguese Police and Judiciary Department: "We have confirmed the identity of Salem", and are investigating possible links with terrorist groups.

In India, the Government has launched a concerted move to bring Salem to book. To back its claim and the Portuguese charge of travelling on illegal documents, the Government has initiated a series of arrests. In Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh, Assistant Sub-Inspector S.A. Sattar, passport office clerk G. Srinivas and revenue inspector Mohammed Yunus have been arrested for aiding Salem get fake passports. In Bhopal, Siraz Khan, who helped Salem and his wives get passports-as Danish Beg, Rubina Beg and Fauzia Usman-has apparently spilled the beans and has even been attacked by Salem's goons.

Unlike in the past, the Indian initiative is not unidimensional. A CBI team led by Additional Director Vijay Shankar and Superintendent of Police O.P. Chatwal is in Lisbon with every bit of evidence against Salem that could get him extradited, if not deported. While Rajesh Ranjan, India's representative at Interpol headquarters in Lyon, is doing his bit, the CBI in Delhi has been coordinating action with Paul Ralf Houghton, who represents the FBI in the US Embassy in Delhi. CBI Director P.C. Sharma also spoke directly to FBI director Robert Muller and sought US assistance in bringing Salem back.

Action is not just at the bureaucratic level. Since India does not have an extradition treaty with Portugal, it is keenly aware that the key to getting Salem booked is to put to use the
US leverage with the Portuguese Government. External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has spoken to US Secretary of State Colin Powell and asked for "US assistance in keeping things on track in the Abu Salem case". Sinha has also written to the Portuguese Government apprising it of the heinous nature of Salem's crimes and the need to put him on trial in India. Portugal and EU nations have guidelines about not extraditing criminals to countries where capital punishment is awarded. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani has suggested that India could consider waiving the death penalty to secure Salem's custody.

It is not going to be easy though. Joanna Ferreira, public prosecutor, international cooperation department, points out that this is not a normal extradition situation. Salem, she says, has been arrested not just on the Red Corner notice put out by Interpol but also for committing a crime in Portugal. "If he has criminal responsibility in the present case of having travelled on false documents, then he has to fulfil that first. If proven guilty in this case, he could be jailed for one to five years."

In other words, it will be a time-consuming affair. Even if Salem is not tried in Portugal, the extradition process could take as long as 11 months. While India hopes that in the post 9/11 circumstances the US leverage should help, one thing is certain: unlike previous occasions, Salem won't be able to escape this time. Even if he manages to avoid Indian custody, his game is quite literally over.

-with bureau reports