Gulshan Kumar Was Murdered By Nadeem And Abu Salem

Gulshan Kumar was murdered by Nadeem and Abu Salem: Bombay High Court.

In the Gulshan Kumar murder case that happened nearly 24 years ago, the Bombay High Court on Thursday said that the ‘cassette king’ was murdered by musician Nadeem Saifi and gangster Abu Salem.

The High Court not only upheld the conviction of Abdul Rauf Merchant, convicted by the trial court in this case.

His brother Abdul Rashid Merchant, who was acquitted by the trial court, was also sentenced to life imprisonment, but Ramesh Taurani, co-founder of Tips Industries Upholding the trial court’s acquittal.

A division bench of Justice SS Jadhav and Justice NR Borkar, while delivering this verdict, termed it a brutal murder.

The court said that we have no doubt about what the prosecution has said about Abdul Rauf. He opened fire on Gulshan Kumar without any reason and killed him.

Rauf had no personal enmity with Gulshan Kumar. Despite this, he did this at the behest of Nadeem Saifi and Abu Salem, who wanted to play their enmity with Gulshan Kumar.

Please tell that both Nadeem Saifi and Abu Salem were declared absconders in this case. Salem, who was later extradited to India from Portugal, is currently in jail on several other charges.

The court in its remarks also appreciated the eyewitnesses. The court said that we have to applaud the eyewitnesses of the incident.

Those who not only accompanied Gulshan Kumar’s driver in taking him to the hospital in an injured condition but also stood by the court, to tell the truth without any hesitation.

Gulshan Kumar, the founder of a company called T-Series, was shot dead 24 years ago on August 12, 1997, outside a temple in Andheri West.

Terming the case as a business rivalry, Tips’ co-founder Ramesh Taurani was also made an accused in the case.

The Sessions Court, in its judgment delivered on April 29, 2002, had acquitted 18 of the 19 accused in the case. Among them were Ramesh Taurani and Abdul Rasheed, the brother of Abdul Rauf.

After this decision came to Abdul Rauf against his sentence, then the state government filed a petition in the High Court against the acquittal of Ramesh Taurani.

About 19 years after the verdict, the High Court, while giving its verdict on these petitions, said that there is no reason to see the hand of Ramesh Taurani in this matter.

But the High Court sentenced Abdul Rauf Merchant along with his brother Abdul Rashid Merchant to life imprisonment.

The court has directed that no concession should be given to Abdul Rauf as he was absconding after the murder of Gulshan Kumar. He was arrested in 2001.

When he was released on furlough in 2009 after his conviction, he did not return to jail after the stipulated period.

In 2016, he was again arrested and sent to jail. The court has also directed his brother Abdul Rashid to surrender at the earliest at the sessions court or DN Nagar police station in Mumbai.

If Abdul Rashid does not surrender, the Sessions Court can issue a non-bailable warrant against him.