Underworld don Abu Salem's girl friend Monica Bedi, facing an extradition trial from Portugal to India, has written a letter to President APJ Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking pardon and cancellation of all criminal proceedings against her and giving her a "second chance".

In her handwritten letter received by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Bedi has requested cancellation of extradition proceedings against her and "a second chance" in life.

"It is not for the PMO to decide on her request and nothing can be said at this juncture. All of us have to wait till the final decision is taken," an official of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said.

Bedi, a small time Bollywood actor, was nabbed along with Salem, a prime accused in the 1993 Mumbai terror blasts, by Portugal police in Lisbon September 18, 2002.

The CBI is probing the Mumbai blasts case and has been on hot pursuit of Bedi and Salem, seeking their extradition from Portugal.

"Bedi is wanted for the passport forgery she committed in India and the case is still pending in Bhopal where the passport was issued to her under a false name," said the CBI official.

Bedi claimed that Salem was introduced to her as a Pakistani businessman at a cultural show and it was the don who had forced her to travel along with him to Portugal on a fake passport.

But intelligence agencies are surprised at this claim and say she had been Salem's closest confidante for more than a decade.

International intelligence agencies, while maintaining surveillance on the satellite phone of Salem, had found him issuing orders to sell off all properties in the US that were in Bedi's name and this shows how close she was in his network, a government official privy to intelligence information said.

"Her claim that she had come to know about the true identity of Salem very late appears doubtful and misleading," the CBI official said.

"She remained with Salem till they were caught in Lisbon. This shows how crucial her extradition is to unravel the underworld and Bollywood nexus," the official said.

Bedi is at present in Lisbon where her two-year jail term was completed on September 18. But she continues to be kept in preventive detention in the extradition case.

She will most probably be taken to Bhopal if she is extradited to India, sources in Mumbai said.

Police in Mumbai have little against Bedi other than one case of owning property on behalf of mobsters and associating with Salem. But she is wanted in Bhopal for passport forgery. A similar case has been filed against Bedi by Hyderabad Police as well.

Under the Indian Penal Code, Bedi is charged under Sections 465 and 469 (forgery), 471 (using false documents as genuine). Forgery can draw up to seven years of imprisonment. Under the Passport Act, she can get a three-year term.

Bedi's parents hail from Punjab and are settled in Norway. She had come to Delhi in the early 1990s and moved to Mumbai where she struggled to get movie offers.

In the beginning, she lived with Mukesh Duggal who was a film producer and gave her the first Bollywood break. He was allegedly shot dead by gangsters, according to police. Bedi acted in moves like Suraksha , Khilona , Jeeyo Shaan Se and Loh Purush , most of which were produced by small timers.

Suddenly she made it to the big banners like David Dhawan's Jodi No.1 . Police suspect that she landed these roles after Salem arm-twisted the producers.