The Delhi High Court has allowed the police to drop stringent MCOCA charges from an extortion case against gangster Abu Salem. The court's judgment came on a petition of the Delhi Police seeking revocation of the lower court's order, which had denied it the permission to withdraw the MCOCA charges against the extradited gangster.

The Delhi High Court judgment assumes significance as it would help the CBI in pursuing the Salem's extradition case before the constitutional court in Portugal, where the probe agency have suffered set backs in judicial proceedings.

Earlier, the Portuguese High Court had terminated the extradition of Salem to India on ground that the extradition terms agreed to between the two nations have not been observed. The Supreme Court of Portugal too had upheld the decision which left the CBI with the sole remedy to seek reversal in the Constitutional Court there.

Salem, along with his girlfriend Monica Bedi, a Bollywood starlet, was detained in Portugal on September 18, 2002, and handed over to India on November 11, 2005, to face trial in eight cases including the 1992 Mumbai blast case.