New Delhi: A court here today issued a fresh production warrant against underworld don Abu Salem, after the Mumbai police failed to produce him in a six-year-old extortion case for the sixth time.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Sanjeev Jain directed the Arthur Road jail authorities in Mumbai to produce the extradited gangster before him on February 20. The Mumbai Police, despite repeated production warrants issued, have failed to produce the gangster in the court since the warrants were issued against him.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police had registered a case of extortion and criminal intimidation against Salem and his alleged associates Ishtiyaq Ahmed and Chander Prakash in 2002. The accused allegedly made extortion calls to a South Delhi-based businessman, Rajat Nagrath, demanding a ransom of Rs one crore.

The CMM court had on December 19 last year issued a production warrant against Salem for today. The FIR in the case was registered in Lodhi Colony police station in South Delhi on Nagrath's complaint. The other two accused, Ahmed and Prakash are lodged in Bhopal jail while Salem is in the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai.

Salem, who was extradited from Portugal on November five, 2005, is also one of the accused in a MCOCA case registered in 2002 for allegedly attempting to extort Rs five crore from a contractor Ashok Gupta.

Source : PTI