Deportation: No court ruling, CBI set to go

Dismissing reports that a Lisbon court had ruled out deportation of Abu Salem, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, the Government tod...

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Dismissing reports that a Lisbon court had ruled out deportation of Abu Salem, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, the Government today said a CBI team was all set to leave for Portugal to ‘‘negotiate his deportation’’.

And speaking to The Indian Express from Lisbon, the First Secretary in the Indian Embassy, S Balasubramaniam, said the report attributed to a Portuguese state-owned news agency, Lusa, was totally wrong. ‘‘The court could not have passed any such order since it was not even agitated about the matter,’’ said the First Secretary. The last order passed in the case by the court was on Friday.

‘‘In fact, the court had remained in session till past 9.15 pm (Portugal time) on the day just to pass the order since the investigation officers in the case were going on leave. That was the day when the court remanded Salem and Monica Bedi to 90 days in custody of judicial police, giving time for completion of investigations,’’ Balasubramaniam added.

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The two were remanded to judicial custody on charges of possessing false documents, including their passports. ‘‘And that was the last order passed in the case. Two days, being a weekend, the courts were off, so there is no question of any subsequent hearings,’’ said the First Secretary. The Portuguese authorities had, in fact, conducted raids on Salem’s houses yesterday and recovered some incriminating documents.

The CBI has not yet formally sought Salem’s deportation and is preparing documents. ‘‘The CBI team will go armed with papers officially seeking deportation. As of now, the Portuguese authorities have been requested to detain him and his companion, Monica Bedi,’’ an official said.

CBI Director P C Sharma went on record on Sunday to say that they did not have information about a new court order. ‘‘We are in constant touch with the Interpol authorities in Lisbon and we have no such communication. The team is leaving in a day or two,’’ he was quoted as saying.