New Delhi, Aug 4 - A city court Tuesday asked Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail authorities to explore the option of recording through video conferencing the statements of gangworld leader Abu Salem who is being tried here in a seven-year-old extortion case.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja issued the notice in the wake of security threats to Salem from other underworld gangs.

Salem, who is lodged in Mumbai's high-security jail, was brought to Tis Hazari courts here for every hearing in the case amid tight security arrangements with scores of paramilitary personnel deployed in and around the court complex.

Extradited from Portugal in November 2005, Salem is being tried along with three aides - Ishtiya Ahmed, C.