The Mumbai Police Crime Branch had based its case against Abu Salem, Nadeem and now-acquitted Tips Industries owner Ramesh Taurani mostly on Shaikh’s statement. An ailing Shaikh (74) died at his Ghatkopar residence of natural causes.

“Shaikh’s testimonial was supposed to be the most crucial in the case,” said defence lawyer Subhash Kanse.

“While we were preparing to prove that Shaikh had never confessed his role in the murder, the police had relied on the alleged confession given by Shaikh. His death would automatically hamper the case of another deported aide of Dawood Ibrahim, Abdul Qayyum Shaikh,” he added.

Qayyum was arrested after the first case was wound up and a supplementary chargesheet was filed against him. While Qayyum’s case is being separately tried at the Sessions Court, no charges against Abu Salem and Nadeem have been framed, although they were initially named as suspects.

While extradited gangster Abu Salem remains “an absconding accused” in the supplementary chargesheet, music director Nadeem was relieved by the London High Court which rejected the Indian Government’s plea to extradite him. Moreover, a stricture was passed by the London High Court against Mumbai Police, saying, “the evidence is tainted.” Salem, on the other hand, could not be tried as India had not mentioned him as an accused in this case while extraditing him from Portugal.

While the state is yet to appoint a special prosecutor in Qayyum’s case, it has already submitted a list of 205 witnesses whom it wants to examine. This includes actors Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aditya Pancholi, Jackie Shroff, Chunky Pandey and Pooja Bhatt. As per the prosecution’s case, these actors had visited Dubai to perform in a show organised by one Shaikh Sarjahan. The prosecution had alleged that during the performance the actors had come to know about the conspiracy. The prosecution has also included a list of singers, directors and producers whom it wants to examine.

... contd.