New Delhi: Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on September 20 night said that efforts are being made at diplomatic level to ensure deportation of underworld don Abu Salem, who has been detained in Portugal, to India and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team would be sent there shortly.

He told reporters that Salem and his associates Monica Bedi and Syed Haider had been detained because of an Interpol notice in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts.

Since there is no extradition treaty between the two countries, the Ministry of External Affairs is pursuing with the government of Portugal his deportation.

Advani said while Salem will continue to be detained in Portugal, the authorities there were unwilling to give any such assurance in the case of Bedi and Haider.

He said that India may also give an assurance to Portuguese authorities that Salem will not be sentenced to death as a convention to which European countries are signatory to not to allow deportation of an accused to a country where he might be executed.

"In this case, it is possible and the Indian law also permits that the necessary assurance may be given to the concerned government as European countries are against death penalty," Advani said.

On extradition, he said that it is not an easy process while deportation is easy.

PTI