This is one European capital where living is not very expensive, the climate excellent, its immigration laws simple and lifestyle very relaxed. That is why Abu Salem and Monika Bedi, using fake passports, made Lisbon their home before a final flight, perhaps, to London to fulfill his dream of opening an Indian restaurant.

While in Lisbon, Abu Salem worked as a car dealer and began exporting expensive watches to Colombo. But a few months into the idyllic holiday, they were detected, put behind bars and eventually extradited to Mumbai.

The Abu Salem case file may have been shut by top-notch solicitors the Indian government hired to fight his extradition, but a bitter legal squabble continues in Lisbon for ownership of the assets and the money he left behind. Rui Patricio, the solicitor who headed a team of lawyers to fight the extradition case, recalls how they succeeded in freezing Salem’s bank accounts and the Mercedes jeep he drove. “Everything was seized but was subsequently released by the Portuguese government. We hear there are many claimants for the assets now.”

In fact, it is the Indian and Portuguese lawyers — who were jointly given a power of attorney by Abu Salem from Mumbai to recover his assets — who have fallen out and are now filing claims and counter-claims. The Portuguese government had frozen 95,000 euros in cash and had detained his jeep which his lawyer in Mumbai, Ashok Sarogi, says has an equal value.

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