India is to press Portugal to extradite or deport a man wanted on charges of involvement in a wave of 1993 bombings that killed 260 people in Bombay.
Portuguese police yesterday said they had arrested Abu Salem who Indian police say was a key associate of Indian gangster Dawood Ibrahim whom they accuse of planning and financing the 1993 explosions.
The blasts were in retaliation for religious riots triggered by the destruction of an ancient mosque in 1992.
Salem is also suspected in the death of music magnate Gulshan Kumar, who was shot dead in Bombay five years ago and has also been accused of extorting money from dozens of people in India's film industry.
"It (extradition) is possible through diplomatic channels and the legal process even without an extradition treaty," Ashwini Kumar, spokesman of the Central Bureau of Investigation, told a news conference.
Kumar said discussions were underway at the Portuguese embassy in Delhi and government authorities in the Portuguese capital Lisbon for the extradition or deportation of Salem.
"He will be there in judicial custody for 90 days and we have enough time to complete legal and technical requirements for his extradition," Kumar said.
Officials say it is difficult for India to get Salem extradited because New Delhi does not have an extradition treaty with Portugal and because a European Union convention forbids deportation of a person to a country where he might be executed.
But the Indian interior minister said the government was willing to assure Portugal, a member of the European Union, that Salem would not be given the death penalty if he was handed over to Indian police.
"In this case, Indian law permits that the necessary assurance may be given to the concerned government that the death penalty will not be given," Lal Krishna Advani told reporters.
India has struggled to repatriate several key suspects in the Bombay bombings and other high-profile crimes in the country's commercial capital.
In November 2001, India said Salem had been arrested in the United Arab Emirates, but received no confirmation from UAE authorities.