Mumbai News: Special NIA Court Denies Bail To Salim Fruit In Dawood Gang Link Case

Mumbai, Feb 12: The special NIA court has refused to grant bail to Salim Iqbal Qureshi alias Salim Fruit, brother-in-law of Chhota Shakeel, booked for his links with the Dawood gang. The court rejected his plea after noting that Qureshi failed to put forth any valid reason for filing a bail plea in September 2025.

The special court stated, “Filing of present bail application in this case, in this court, is sheer wastage of time.”

Earlier plea rejected on merits

The court noted that Qureshi’s plea for bail was first rejected on merits in September 2023. He wanted to challenge the said order before the High Court, but got delayed.

He later filed an appeal with a plea for condonation of delay. The plea was allowed, but later Qureshi decided to withdraw his petition unconditionally from the HC on August 26, 2025.

The court said after withdrawal of the appeal, Qureshi approached the special court for bail on September 15, 2025. When the advocate for Qureshi was asked, during the course of arguments, why he chose to withdraw the appeal in the HC, no satisfactory explanation was given, the court noted.

No new grounds for bail, court says

Later, the court noted that they gave an explanation that on March 21, 2023, the special court had directed the agency to provide copies/mirror images of the data contained in electronic gadgets seized during the course of investigation. The data has still not been provided. Hence, they claimed non-compliance of the order by the NIA is a circumstance to seek bail again.

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The court refused to accept it and said, “This does not at all provide any ground, much less a new ground or any change in the circumstances in favour of the accused for filing this subsequent bail application in this same court in this same case.”

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