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Prosecution case against Nadeem does not make a sustainable case even of conspiracy: Lawyer

Jake Khan

Seventeen months after the Gulshan Kumar killing, the case for composer Nadeem Akhtar's extradition to India from Great Britain began in London last month. The Bombay police have sought Nadeem's extradition on the ground that he is allegedly involved in the music magnate's murder.

The case opened in the court of Judge Christopher Pratt on Bow Street, on February 22. The next day for the trial was fixed for March 3, 1999, but none of the Indian government's officials were present. Barrister Paul Garlick of the Crown Prosecution Service had sought additional time to collect evidence against Nadeem.

Judge Pratt has scheduled the next hearing for May 10 and, thereafter, on June 7. The Bombay police know Nadeem might get off on a technical point and maintain a studied silence on the matter.

It appears that long before Nadeem allegedly began scheming against Gulshan Kumar, Dubai-based gangster Abu Salem had already put the music mogul on his hit list. Nadeem is alleged to have discussed the killing with Abu Salem soon after the gangster had already ordered the killing. And so Salem, who had already given the job to a group based in Mumbra, also put a group from Bandra on Gulshan Kumar's trail.

The Mumbra group got to Gulshan Kumar first while the group set off after Nadeem allegedly came into the picture, failed.

Mohammed Ali, head of the Bandra group, later fell into a police trap and turned approver. It was on the basis of his confession that the Bombay police built the case against Nadeem.

"The prosecution allegation that Nadeem schemed with Abu Salem to kill Gulshan Kumar (which is never admitted and is emphatically denied), even if taken to be true, also does not make a sustainable case of conspiracy to kill Gulshan Kumar," says Nadeem's Bombay-based advocate Majeed Memon. The allegation that Nadeem, ever talked to Abu Salem or conspired to kill Gulshan Kumar, are baseless accusations and as such, the same cannot be partly or wholly admitted, asserted Memon.

A crucial statement that Memon is relying is the one dated November 28, 1997. Mohammed Ali from the Bandra group had told Metropolitan Magistrate V V Palnitkar, 'All of us were seeking an opportunity to kill Gulshan Kumar. On August 12, when I was sitting at the telephone booth of Faiyyaz [the owner of a communication centre] Qayyum from the Abu Salem gang called to tell Faiyyaz that Gulshan Kumar had been killed by Abu Salem's men.'

According to Memon, "If this statement were to be accepted as the truth then in law the offence is not murder, not even an attempt to murder. Instead, it is just mere preparation to cause death, which is not as grave an offence."

Deputy Commissioner of Police, zone-VII, K L Prasad, who spearheaded the investigation in the Gulshan Kumar killing, dismisses the assertion. Nadeem is the main conspirator, alleges the DCP. Abu Salem or his henchmen were merely the tools, he adds. How can Nadeem get away with such legerdemain, he asks.

The Bombay police take this case very seriously since the film industry initially refused to believe that Nadeem, of the famous Nadeem-Shravan duo, could have actually plotted to kill anyone, leave alone Gulshan Kumar. And it became a matter of prestige when Nadeem was found to be in London and sought protection from the courts there.

The Bombay police are smarting from the rebuff from the London courts on the issue of Iqbal Mirchi's extradition in the Amar Suvarna murder case. After a protracted battle in the London courts, the Bombay police ended up paying over Rs 9.5 million to Mirchi as damages. The Bombay police want no more of that.

For Nadeem's extradition from London, the city police needs to be clear on two counts. First, they have to convince the London magistrate that they have a prima facie case against Nadeem. They also have to prove that the accused will get a fair trial in India after the extradition. There were several delays, due to adjournments often sought by the Crown Prosecution Service, postponements, recording of statements, deposition and establishment of probable cause (an effort to establish the involvement of the accused in the crime).

Even if the police win their case before the Bow Street magistrate, who is the equivalent of an Indian judicial magistrate first class, Nadeem can drag the case up to the higher courts in England, or even to the House of Lords or the home secretary, since this is a case for extradition. Both parties are entitled to make an appeal against the Bow Street magistrate's judgement.

EARLIER REPORTS/FEATURES:
• Undertrials go on the rampage
• Nadeem's application on tapped phone calls rejected
• 400-page chargesheet filed in Gulshan Kumar murder case

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