As a consequence, Salem had to leave the country and reach Dubai where he came in direct contact with Dawood Ibrahim, Anees Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel and started taking care of Dwaood's extortion operations related to Bollywood.

Four years later in 1997, Salem was declared the main accused of music baron Gulshan Kumar's murder.

Salem's criminal activities became seamless and eventually he became the main conspirator in many cases like hatching a plan to kill actress Manisha Koirala's secretary, the murder of builder Pradip Ranjan, murder of producer Mukesh Duggal.