Wednesday, November 16 2005 12:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In the midst of debate over the guarantee given to Portugal for his extradition to India, Government today (Nov 16, 2005) said it cannot stop the judiciary from awarding death sentence to underworld don Abu Salem but it had the power to commute it.

Government cannot interfere with the judicial process and ask the courts not to award him capital punishment, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said. But it has the power under the statute to commute a case of death sentence, Patil told NDTV.

During the legal process for extraditing Salem and his girlfriend Monica Bedi in Portugal, India had assured Lisbon that Salem would not be hanged incase the courts gave him death penalty for the crimes committed by him.