Abu Salem worked in the D-Company (Dawood Ibrahim gang) as a driver transporting artillery and contraband.
It is believed that Salem was the mastermind behind threatening Bollywood film producers Gulshan Kumar, Subhash Ghai, Rajiv Rai and Rakesh Roshan.
[5] 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.
Later Abu Salem started a travel agency at Santa Cruz with J K Ibrahim who worked for the Dawood gang.
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.
Salem is believed to be the mastermind behind the murder of music baron Gulshan Kumar on 12 August 1997 without Dawood's consent.
His gang members also attempted to shoot at Bollywood film directors, Rajiv Rai and Rakesh Roshan when they refused to yield to his extortion demands.
In October 2001, four members of his gang were shot in Bandra before they could target film personalities Aamir Khan, Ashutosh Gowarikar and Jhamu Sughand.
In February 2004, a Portugal court cleared his extradition to India to face trial in the 1993 Bombay bomb blasts case.
Monica Bedi was also extradited to India and later convicted of passport forgery in 2006 and served her imprisonment but she was not involved in any of the businesses operated by Abu Salem.
A lower court in Portugal cancelled his extradition to India for violation of deportation rules by Indian authorities by instituting fresh cases against him that attracted the death penalty.
In July 2012, the Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice questioned the legal right of Indian authorities to challenge the cancellation of extradition order.
On 27 June 2013, Salem was shot by Devendra Jagtap, an accused person in the Shahid Azmi murder case inside Taloja Central Jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, the police said.
[12] Abu Salem, Mustafa Dossa, and 4 others were convicted by a Special CBI court in Mumbai on 16 June 2017 in connection with the 1993 Bombay blasts case.
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act Court Gives Life Imprisonment To Abu Salem in Mumbai 1993 Blast Case.
[15] In August 2013, Punjabi singer Sukhwinder Singh Maan alias Sukha Delhi wala revealed that he would release a song composed by Abu Salem while lodged in Tihar Jail, in his next Music Album.
Preliminary calculations by the CBI reveal transactions worth Rs 2 billion were carried out by Salem in the year 2000 itself.
[20][21] In September 2002, Abu Salem and his partner Monica Bedi, were arrested and later served prison sentences in Portugal[22] for entering the country on forged documents.