Builder murder case approver turns hostile

MUMBAI: One of the two approvers in the 1995 Pradeep Jain murder case against extradited gangster Abu Salem has now refused to support the prosecution in the murder trial.
Riaz Siddiqui was arrested in connection with the case by the investigating agency Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Mumbai police soon after Salem was extradited to India in November 2005.Siddiqui was believed to be part of the conspiracy where Salem allegedly ordered the killing of Jain because he refused to give in to his extortion demands.
However, in 2006 a designated Tada court which is hearing the case, granted pardon to Siddiqui after he expressed a wish to turn an approver in the case. This was done under section 306 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which says that an accused can be granted pardon, "on condition of his making a full and true disclosure of the whole of the circumstances within his knowledge relative to the offence and to every other person concerned''. The same accused is then examined as a witness in the case.
Defence advocates say that the approver, however, has refused to play ball and has not supported the prosecution in court, and has been declared hostile. The ATS is now planning to pursue its legal options. It can ask the court to make him an accused once again in the case as he has declined to abide by the conditions under which he was granted pardon.
The prosecution, however, may still have hope from the other approver in the trial, Naeem Khan, who allegedly arranged the finances for Jain's killing. Apart from Salem, there are two other accused in the case--builder Virendra Jhamb, who is charged with conspiracy and a person called Mehndi Hassan, who allegedly drove the killers to the crime scene.
Earlier, Salem had won a major reprieve when the state had dropped all charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against him in the 2001 murder case of actress Manisha Koirala's secretary Ajit Dewani. In this case, Salem allegedly ordered the killing of Dewani to spread terror in the film industry.
However, all MCOCA charges against Salem were dropped in keeping with the terms and conditions of the extradition treaty under which Portugal sent him back to India. The only other case pending against Salem in Mumbai is that of ferrying arms and ammunition to the city before the 1993 serial blasts where he is facing trial in the special Tada court.
The Jain murder case will now come up for hearing in court on Tuesday.