The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction at the Centre’s ambivalent stand on complying with the sovereign assurance to Portugal at the time of extradition that 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Abu Salem would not be subjected to the death penalty or a life term.
India had assured the Portugal government in 2001 under an extradition agreement that Salem would not be handed any sentence stretching beyond 25 years.
However, a Tada court has handed him the life term and the government has said it will review his sentence once his 25-year jail term ends in 2030, prompting Salem to move the Supreme Court.
“In order to enable him to be extradited, you took a decision to bring him here by giving an assurance…. This court has to be conscious of the fact that in your wisdom you have given an assurance. I don’t understand what the other remedies are…. I am sorry. It is for you to be unequivocal,” a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.M. Sundresh told additional solicitor-general K.M. Natraj during a hearing.
