Mumbai: Mumbai police would seek seizure of the controversial account, allegedly held by underworld don Abu Salem in a local bank.

A senior police official told reporters that the "antecedents of persons and how the account was opened in the particular branch are being looked into". Salem was arrested in Lisbon on September 18.

"Senior personnel from detection branch are already on the job," the official said.

Operating primarily through hawala channels, Salem "like other ganglords", had opened accounts in tax-haven countries across the globe, including UAE, Switzerland and a few islands in close proximity to England.

Stating that Salem had huge investments, he said most of these were being operated under fictitious and code names. "It is like code names talked about during Bofors", he said adding "if the account holder dies the money goes to the bank. In some cases, instead of interest from bank, the account holder has to pay some money to the bank authorities to keep their property in safe custody," he remarked.

PTI