Monday, Sep 23, 2002
Monday, Sep 23, 2002 |
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By Our Special Correspondent
The CBI Director, P.C. Sharma, said notwithstanding the Lisbon court's ruling, a team of the agency would leave for Portugal next week in an attempt to persuade the authorities there to hand over Salem to the Indian law enforcing authorities. He, however, did not elaborate on the strategy that the CBI intended to employ to get Salem extradited. India had requested Portugal to detain Salem till it forwarded the documents containing a request seeking him. The CBI would have to frame a strategy jointly with the Union Home and Law Ministries because of the complexities involved. In Lisbon, discussions are being held between the Indian Ambassador and the local police. Portugal has no extradition treaty with India. Besides, as a member of the European Union, it is a signatory to a treaty forbidding it from sending back criminals to countries that have death penalty. Salem, who allegedly masterminded several extortion-related killing, besides having a hand in the 1993 Bombay blasts, could receive the death penalty if convicted by an Indian court. The Interpol, whose active assistance was instrumental in getting Salem detained in Portugal, has reportedly advised the CBI to take steps to seek his extradition even though it is a relatively time-consuming process as compared to deportation. Salem has been sent to a Lisbon jail for 90 days along with his companions, Monica Bedi and Sayed Haider, for having flawed travel documents. The CBI is wary of linking Salem with the Al-Qaeda because of the absence of incontrovertible evidence in this regard. It favours putting up documents to the Lisbon authorities that firmly link him with several cases of murder, extortion, intimidation and the Bombay blasts. In an effort to get Salem sent to India, the CBI is prepared to give an undertaking to the Lisbon court that he would not be executed even if an Indian court gave a ruling to that effect. Death penalty is handed out in the "rarest of rare" cases in India but there is a large body of legal opinion which believes that Salem's crimes are serious enough to warrant a death penalty. According to the case being put together by the CBI, Abu Salem Qayyum Ansari, originally from an eastern Uttar Pradesh district, was a close associate of Dawood Ibrahim and is the prime absconding accused in the Bombay blasts. Several prominent film personalities have also reportedly received extortion threats from his gang members.
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