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Diplomatic efforts to bring back Abu Salem
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 22
The CBI will soon send a team to Lisbon to bring back underworld don Abu Salem. CBI Director P.C. Sharma today indicated that a team would leave for Lisbon in a day or two to make efforts to get Salem deported to India.

Asked to comment on reports about a Lisbon court having turned down Salem’s immediate deportation, Mr Sharma said he was not aware of it. “The agency’s effort is to get him here and we are making efforts in this direction,” he said.

Salem, along with wife Monica Bedi and Sayed Haider, was arrested by the Portugal police on September 18 for possessing fake documents and a court there sent them to 90-day judicial custody.

Four photographs taken from the Intelligence files show (from left to right) Abu Salem, alias Danish Beg , Monica Bedi (Abu Salem's second wife), alias Fauzia Beg, Sameera Jumani (Abu's first wife), alias Rubina Beg and Shiraz Khan, Abu's associate who helped the three persons to acquire the false passports from Bhopal. — PTI photo

CBI officials maintained that the court ruling may not be the last word on the issue and the government would intensify diplomatic efforts and coordinate with the agencies concerned to ensure that Salem was brought to justice.

On reports of Salem being a “conduit” for funding of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida terror network, the officials said this aspect was yet to be proved.

“There may be substance in this as has been out for so long, but this can be known only when we get him here and examine him,’’ they said.

Officials said the house where Salem and Monica lived in Lisbon was raided by the Portuguese authorities and claimed that some “incriminating” documents were found.

Even though India does not have an extradition treaty with Portugal, they said efforts would be made to get Salem extradited after giving a written assurance to the Portuguese authorities that he would not be executed even if found guilty of charges against him.

Sources said officials of the ministries of Home and Law had been interacting to work out India’s request to Portugal to bring back Salem.

They said India was yet to give its views to the Portuguese judicial authorities on Salem and had only made a request to the government there to detain the gangster till New Delhi prepared its case for bringing him back to the country.

Interpol had asked the CBI on September 20 to prepare papers for Salem’s extradition even though such a process would involve court procedures.

The fake residence permits of Salem and Monica identified them as Arsalan Mohsin Ali and Sana Malik Kamal. The two had been living in Lisbon since last month.

According to an AFP report from Lisbon, a Portuguese court had yesterday ruled against deporting Salem.

Will Salem be extradited?

Mumbai, September 22
Will India succeed in getting underworld don Abu Salem deported to India? This is a question that is being hotly debated in legal circles here.

In such cases, relations between the two countries — the state requested for extradition and the requesting nation — play a pivotal role in deciding the deportation issue. PTI