Abu Salem

Abu Salem (born Abu Salem Abdul Qayoom Ansari), also known as Aqil Ahmed Azmi and Abu Samaan, is an Indian criminal gangster and terrorist from Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh, Central India.

Abu Salem worked in the D-Company (DaWood Ibrahim gang) as a driver transporting artillery and contraband.

Later he rose among the ranks after he introduced a new strategy of hiring unemployed youths from his hometown Azamgarh to come to Mumbai, execute shoot-outs and return the next day remaining untraced by the Mumbai police.

He is currently serving a life sentence in India.

Salem is infamous for terrorizing the Bollywood film industry by extorting money from film producers and usurping the overseas distribution rights.

It is believed that Salem was the mastermind behind threatening Bollywood film producers Gulshan Kumar, Subhash Ghai, Rajiv Rai and Rakesh Roshan.

Abu Salem was born in 1969 (according to the CBI; although the Mumbai police says, 1962; some reports suggest 1968) into a lower-middle-class family in Sarai Mir village of Azamgarh district, Uttar Pradesh.

He was the second youngest amongst four brothers, though some reports maintain that he was the eldest of four brothers.

His father was a lawyer by profession who was killed in a road accident.

He started a small mechanic shop in his home town to support his family.

He studied in a primary school in Azamgarh and left the village after completing his inter college.

He moved to Delhi, where he worked as a taxi driver.

In the 1980s, he started working for his cousin Akthar who had a cheap electronics shop near Andheri railway station.

Akhtar also worked for Sayyed Topi, a DaWood Ibrahim gang leader in the Andheri area.

Later Abu Salem started a travel agency at Santa Cruz with J K Ibrahim who worked for the DaWood gang.

In 1985, he came to Bombay to earn a livelihood.

He worked as a bread delivery boy between Bandra and Andheri and worked at a garment shop in Andheri West in 1986.

Later, he became a real estate broker who operated from Arasa Market in Andheri West in 1987.

In 1988, he assaulted a colleague over a monetary issue, resulting in the first case against him registered at Andheri police station.

In the meantime, he married Samira Jumani from Jogeshwari, whom he divorced later.

He has two sons from her.

He loved film and reportedly named his sons after Bollywood actors.

His elder brother Abu Hatim, also known as "Chunchun Miyan", owns a shop in his native village.

From 1989 to 1993, Salem worked as a driver for the D-Company (DaWood Ibrahim gang) and he delivered weapons, illegal cash and goods to different gang members in Bombay.

His proficiency at delivering goods at the right time and place earned him the nickname Abu Samaan.

In 1992, he supplied weapons to film actor Sanjay Dutt.

He played an active role in March 1993 Bombay serial bomb blasts which killed over 250 people, left 700 injured and damaged property worth Rs 270 million.

In 1993, he left the country and moved to Dubai, United Arab Emirates when the police started rounding up suspects in serial blasts case.

He had a business establishment there called Kings of Car Trading.

In the mid-nineties, many sharp shooters from D-company were killed either by the Chhota Rajan gang or in police encounters.

Salem successfully introduced a new strategy of hiring unemployed Muslim youths from his hometown Azamgarh to come to Mumbai, carry off the shooting and return to Azamgarh the next day.

Those youths were paid a paltry sum compared to sharp shooters and the Mumbai police also could not track them as the youths had no criminal record with the Bombay police.

Soon Abu Salem got the support of Anees Ibrahim (DaWood's brother) and he rose to prominence within the gang.

Because of his smooth talking skills, Salem was given the responsibility to manage the Bollywood deals and film financing for DaWood.

He organised stage shows where he invited actors.

He was involved in extorting from the Hindi film industry, channelling illicit money into film production, forcibly getting the dates of stars, and usurping overseas rights.

While his gang members assassinated Gulshan Kumar in 1997, they failed in their attempt to assassinate Rajiv Rai and Rakesh Roshan.

He was also involved in several murders and extortion, among other crimes.

He was later arrested in 2002 in Portugal on charges of using a fake passport and extradited to India.

He was tried and convicted in some cases and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2015.