Underworld don Abu Salem was on Friday awarded four years of rigorous imprisonment in a 2001 fake passport case by a local court here.
The extradited gangster was found guilty under IPC section 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and section 12(1)(B) (suppression of information) of the Indian Passport Act by the court. He, was, however acquitted of the charge under IPC section 468 (forgery).
Chief Judicial Magistrate R.G. Singh awarded the sentence after hearing arguments of Salem's advocate P C Bedi. Singh also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Salem.
Salem, extradited from Portugal in 2005 and lodged in a Mumbai jail for his role in 1993 Mumbai blast case, was present in the court on Friday.
Since Salem has been awarded two years RI on two counts each, effectively, the sentence is for four years. However, since Salem has already spent three years and six days in the jail, he will spend the remaining period of 11 months and 24 days in the prison in connection with the passport case.
If Salem fails to pay the fine, he will have to undergo an additional imprisonment of two months each under these sections. The case was filed against Salem, Monica and Siraj here in 2001 and they were accused of obtaining passports under fictitious names.
While the court has already acquitted Bollywood actress and Salem's alleged companion Monica Bedi in the same case earlier, another accused, Siraj, had turned prosecution witness.
Meanwhile, Salem's advocate P.C. Bedi alleged that his client was implicated in the fake passport case by the police and till date it has failed to seize the original passport.
The case was tried in the court on the basis of a photocopy of the fake passport. He said that he would appeal against the judgement in the sessions court.