Friday, January 20 2006 10:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Extradited gangster Abu Salem was yesterday (Jan 19,2006) remanded to police custody till February 2 in the murder case of Ajit Dewani, former secretary to Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala, by a special court set up under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.

Producing Salem before the court, crime branch of city police said they needed Salem's custody to trace absconding accused, namely, Puneet Singh, Suresh Yadav, Ramesh and Abdullah.

Besides, police said they had to find out where the accused had kept the weapon with which Dewani was killed and also who had paid contract money to murder Dewani.

Salem was arrested by the Mumbai crime branch Wednesday (Jan 18,2006) for his alleged complicity in the murder of Dewani. This is one of the cases probed by crime branch on the basis of which Salem's extradition was sought from Portugal, the court was told.

On June 30, 2001, Dewani was killed by two alleged gunmen of Salem outside his office in suburban Oshiwara after he reportedly failed to pay extortion money to the gangster.

Co-accused Deepak Singh, arrested earlier, had already given his confession to police on February 16, 2002, and the chargesheet in the case was filed on November 19, 2001.