Gandhinagar, Sep 10: The Gujarat government has completed DNA sample collection from relatives of 29 of the 30 people from the state, including Non-Resident Gujaratis (NRGs), who remain missing or uncontactable following the August 26 flash floods in Nepal, particularly along the Nepal-Tibet border and Bhote Koshi River corridor.

The samples are being processed for DNA profiling to help identify bodies and human remains recovered in the disaster. The process for the remaining missing person is also underway.

The Gujarat State Non-Resident Gujaratis’ Foundation (NRGF), under the NRI Division of the General Administration Department, has been coordinating with the families and authorities in India and abroad to facilitate the DNA collection and identification process.

The initiative is being carried out in accordance with guidelines issued by the Central government, under which designated forensic laboratories have been identified for DNA sample collection and profiling of first-degree relatives of missing persons.

DNA profiling at laboratories designated for the purpose is being undertaken free of cost, as directed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Six designated laboratories in Gujarat are facilitating the process, with DNA profiling being undertaken in Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Junagadh and Rajkot.

The National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) in Gandhinagar, is coordinating with the Ministry of External Affairs on DNA profiling of samples collected in India and their linkage with the identification process in Nepal.

A 10-member NFSU forensic team has also been involved in the identification efforts in Nepal. Nepal Police has separately initiated DNA profiling of recovered bodies and human remains following the incident.

NRGF has been personally contacting relatives of each missing person and guiding them about the designated laboratories, available facilities and the procedure for DNA sample collection and profiling.

It has also been coordinating with NRGs and relatives living abroad to ascertain the action taken by local authorities in their respective countries.

In cases involving relatives in New Zealand, the United States, Canada and African countries, NRGF has obtained information about DNA samples collected by authorities in those countries and the status of the identification process.

In several cases, samples of relatives living abroad have already been collected through the respective local authorities.

The DNA profiling reports are being sent directly by the designated laboratories to Nepalese authorities through the official email addresses and contact numbers notified by the them for the identification exercise.

Nepal Police has also requested first-degree relatives of missing people living abroad to undergo DNA profiling at authorised forensic laboratories in their respective countries.

The Gujarat Government, through the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC), district administrations and NRGF, has been coordinating efforts to trace people from the state and Gujaratis living abroad who were reported missing or remain uncontactable after the floods.

A consolidated list of missing and untraceable persons prepared by SEOC and NRGF has also been shared with the Nepal government. So far, 30 people, including NRGs, remain untraceable from the flood-affected areas.

Those reported missing or out of contact include people from Ahmedabad, Anand, Banaskantha, Kheda, Gandhinagar, Surat, Valsad, Rajkot and other parts of Gujarat. Several had travelled to Nepal for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through different travel agencies and routes.

The scale of the disaster has made conventional identification difficult in cases where bodies or human remains have been severely damaged or recovered in parts.

Nepal has therefore begun a large-scale DNA identification exercise, with samples being collected from relatives and compared with DNA obtained from recovered remains.

The DNA-based process is expected to help establish the identities of victims from Gujarat and other parts of India, as well as foreign nationals, and provide families with confirmation about the fate of relatives who remain missing.

New Delhi, Sep 10: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the plea filed by 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Abu Salem challenging his continued incarceration and seeking release on the ground that he had completed the maximum 25-year sentence after taking into account his undertrial detention and jail-earned remission.

A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta dismissed the petition after hearing the matter, which had been reserved for judgment on July 27.

Salem had claimed that his undertrial detention, post-conviction incarceration and jail-earned remission should be taken into account while computing the 25-year sentence, entitling him to release in view of the extradition assurance given by India to Portugal.

Abu Salem, currently lodged in Nashik Road Central Prison, had approached the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court’s refusal to direct his immediate release.

The Bombay High Court, in its judgment pronounced on April 15, dismissed Salem’s plea, holding that the 25-year period fixed by the Supreme Court could not be reduced by ordinary prison remissions.

The High Court had held that the 25-year term constituted the substantive sentence that Salem was required to undergo and was “not a ceiling capable of reduction by application of ordinary prison remissions”.

A Division Bench of Justices A.S. Gadkari and Kamal Khata further held that Salem’s attempt to include “earned remissions” to shorten the 25-year period was “legally unsustainable”.

Salem was extradited from Portugal and brought to India in November 2005. He was arrested and produced before the TADA Court on November 11, 2005, in connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. He was convicted in TADA Case No. 1 of 2006 in February 2015 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was subsequently convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case in September 2017 and sentenced to life imprisonment, with both sentences ordered to run concurrently.

The Supreme Court, while upholding his convictions in July 2022, commuted the life sentences to a total sentence of 25 years in view of the solemn sovereign assurance given by the Government of India to Portugal that Salem would not be subjected to imprisonment beyond 25 years.

The apex court had also directed the government to consider remission under Sections 432 and 433 of the CrPC one month prior to completion of the 25-year period.

Before the Bombay High Court, Salem claimed that he had earned nearly three years of remission for good conduct and that, after accounting for his undertrial detention and post-conviction incarceration, he had completed the 25-year period. However, the High Court held that remission earned under prison rules is administrative in nature and “does not ipso facto reduce the sentence imposed by a Court.”

It further observed that the 25-year period would expire in November 2030, reckoning it from his arrest on November 11, 2005. “There is no question the sovereign assurance of 25 years being further reduced on account of remissions earned,” the Bombay High Court said.

It also held that any exercise of statutory remission or reduction below the 25-year period could be considered only in accordance with the Supreme Court’s directions, adding that the executive’s duty to pass formal remission orders arises one month before completion of the said period.

Earlier, Salem approached the Supreme Court seeking premature release in terms of the extradition arrangement between India and Portugal.

In February, the top court had allowed him to withdraw that plea with liberty to seek an early hearing of the pending matter before the Bombay High Court.

Salem was extradited from Portugal to India in November 2005 and was subsequently convicted in two cases arising out of the 1993 Mumbai blasts. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in both cases, with the sentences ordered to run concurrently. In July 2022, the Supreme Court, while upholding his convictions, restricted his imprisonment to 25 years in view of the sovereign assurance given to Portugal.

Jammu, Sep 10: Officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said on Thursday that the drug trafficking accused, who had escaped from custody in J&K’s Jammu city on September 7, has been re-arrested.

The officials said the NCB, in coordination with the Jammu and Kashmir Police and Punjab Police, has re-arrested the drug trafficking accused, who had fled from custody in Jammu.

The accused had fled from Jammu and travelled towards Jalandhar via the Pathankot route, the officials said. He allegedly took shelter in a forested area near Narwal Fruit Mandi before altering his appearance by shaving his beard and changing his clothes.

The official said that following a three-day search and tracking operation across Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, a joint team of NCB Jammu, NCB Amritsar, NCB Chandigarh and Punjab Police traced and apprehended him in Jalandhar.

The accused was identified as Aqib Bashir.

“The accused was preparing to move towards Delhi or another state when he was apprehended.

“The accused used his contacts in Jalandhar to seek shelter and evade the search teams. Intelligence inputs and field efforts helped the agencies track his location. Aqib Bashir was arrested when he was preparing to move towards Delhi or another state.

“His initial arrest was part of a month-long operation by the NCB in the Jammu division, which exposed two distinct routes used by narcotic smugglers to push heroin into the union territory from Pakistan through the Uri sector and indirectly via Punjab.

“The NCB had earlier arrested him with 522 grams of heroin from a passenger bus in Samba district on September 3,” the officials said.

Further investigation is underway to ascertain the circumstances of his escape and identify those who allegedly provided him shelter and facilitated his movement.

Intelligence agencies believe that the major portion of narcotics smuggled into the country from Pakistan is used to sustain terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir