Saturday, April 15 2006 16:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Police today (Apr 15, 2006) chargesheeted extradited gangster Abu Salem and co-accused Shah Alam for their alleged complicity in the murder of Ajit Dewani, former secretary to actress Manisha Koirala.

The chargesheet was filed in a special court set up under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) nearly three months after Salem's arrest.

A copy of the chargesheet was handed over to Salem and Shah Alam.

Salem had earlier confessed to his role in the murder but later retracted his confessional statement saying it was taken under duress.

Police has alleged that Salem had hired assailants who killed Dewani on his instructions after he (Dewani) failed to pay extortion amount.

Salem was extradited on the basis of eight cases pending against him in Indian courts. One of them was the Ajit Dewani murder case, the sources said.

Besides Salem and Shah Alam, six other accused had been arrested for their alleged complicity in the murder of Dewani in 2001.

They are Upendra Singh, Nizamuddin Abdul Rauf, Akhilesh Singh, Ayub Ibrahim Patel, Sahiblal Giri and Deepak Singh alias Dipu.

Dipu recently escaped from the clutches of police in Varanasi while he was being taken from jail to a court. He was sent to Uttar Pradesh for trial in a criminal case.

The court has taken a serious view of the matter and said it would hold an inquiry into the escape of the accused from police custody.

"The prosecution has already examined ten witnesses and the trial is expected to resume after the supplementary chargesheet is filed tomorrow," the sources said.

According to prosecution, accused Upendra Singh and Dipu Singh barged into Dewani's office in Lokhandwala area of suburban Andheri in north-west Mumbai and shot at him at point blank range. They escaped in a car provided by co-accused Nizamuddin Rauf.

Deepak has already confessed to his role in the crime and later escaped from police custody. Efforts are being made to trace him, Varanasi police have said in a report to the Mumbai court.

The prosecution has cited four eye witnesses to the murder of Dewani but they have not been examined so far.