‘That day, I realized my husband was not safe. I told Ashwin I wanted him alive and not dead. And I had no objections if he wanted to join hands with his brother and become part of the syndicate,’ she said.
Neeta had tumbled into Ashwin’s life after many failed attempts at finding that one true love. Ashwin Naik, unlike his notorious brother Amar Naik, was not conventionally handsome. He was a swarthy young man and had bulbous eyes. But he was charming and self-confident, with a sharp intelligence and a devil-may-care attitude that drew women to him.
Neeta happened to him by chance. With her high cheekbones and big, beautiful, doe-like eyes, she looked like Maggie Gyllenhaal. She was introduced to Ashwin one day when he was hanging out with his friends at Elphinstone College; she studied at Sophia’s and they had common friends. The two were drawn to each other at the first meeting itself. Initially, it was romance on the rebound for Ashwin, smarting as he was from the Rita Panjabi affair. It did not take him too long though, to fall in love with Neeta’s pretty face and cheerful personality. Neeta, on the other hand, was attracted to Ashwin’s simplicity. Of all her friends, Ashwin seemed to be the most sincere and honest, and that acted like a magnet for her. Gradually, their budding friendship developed into companionship and the lovebirds began to seek each other out.
Ashwin’s fondness for the movies meant that they saw numerous films together, and before they knew it, Cupid had struck. When they were about to graduate, they realized it was time to make a decision about their relationship.
They were both deeply in love, there was no doubt about that. And there was no trouble over compatibility. Neeta belonged to a conservative Gujarati family, while Ashwin was a mali (gardener) by caste, from Maharashtra. Neeta’s father, Harilal Jethwa, was already involved in the hawala business while Ashwin’s family, of course, was part of the Mumbai underworld. The decision to tie the knot was not hindered by considerations of caste, community or religion. Ashwin and Neeta were married without much ado.
Not long after they got married, they realized that crime was a cesspool that they were being dragged into. They wanted to start life afresh, go to a safer place. They travelled to southern cities like Chennai and Bangalore, before finally settling for the latter and making their home in the warm, welcoming city.
Years passed and Amar was constantly on the run, making trips in and out of Mumbai. The police continued to harass Ajit and Ashwin like they had in the old days.
The firing incident in 1992 on the Western Express Highway was the turning point. For the first time, the Mumbai mafia found a civil engineer in its ranks.
TWELVE
The Ambush
3 DECEMBER 1988
The night always seems eerier in the wilderness than in the city. Especially if death is in the air. But this was not some dense forest, this was the Bombay–Pune Highway. There were no streetlights, so it was pitch dark. An uneasy calm dominated the whole scene.
The Maruti Omni van which had left Kanjurmarg a couple of hours earlier had begun slowing down near the Panvel petrol pump. The driver signalled with the dipper, which was strange because there was no one else there.
Ashok Joshi, who was like a brother to Gawli, was sitting next to the driver. He suddenly got suspicious. He took out his pistol and shot the driver in the temple, killing him instantly. He then grabbed his AK-56 and asked his men to get out their weapons. In such instances, a second can fuck your foes or finalize your funeral.
But Ashok Joshi and his three friends were a little late, even in their swift reactions. Chhota Rajan’s hit squad, comprising Sautya, Parab, Sanjay Meher, Naresh Jukar, Diwakar Churi and Dinesh, descended on the car and showered it with bullets. Joshi tried to put up a fight, but he was outnumbered and outgunned by his adversaries. More than 200 rounds were fired continuously for five minutes, leaving five men dead in the car. Sautya’s team suffered no casualties, not even any major injuries.
The killing was the result of meticulous planning by Rajan’s men. They had followed the same strategy and used the same pawn employed by Gawli’s goons a few weeks earlier, when they had killed Dawood’s finance manager, Satish Raje. It had been decided unanimously that Raje should die as payback for Rama Naik’s death, and this was the horrible fallout of that incident.
Raje was well aware that Dawood had left a plethora of enemies behind when he escaped to Dubai. It was not an easy task, being an aide-de-camp of someone like him, but he enjoyed being Dawood’s Man Friday. As a mafia man himself, he was well-versed in the modus operandi employed by the sharpshooters. They usually halted their vehicle next to their target’s car at a signal, peppered the target with bullets and drove off.
So Raje had got himself a heavily fortified car with tinted black bulletproof glasses as a precaution. Moreover, he sat between two bouncers while a third sat in the front seat. This made him feel secure. They were physically imposing and heavily armed; they could have easily taken on two dozen men on their own. Gradually Raje became complacent about his security and presumed that no one would dare touch him unless they wanted to get killed themselves.
Gawli’s team managed to penetrate Raje’s hitherto impregnable security cordon. On 21 November 1988, Sadanand Pawle alias Sada Pawle, Vijay Tandel, Paul Newman, Ganesh Vakil and other gangsters from Dagdi Chawl followed Raje from his den in Parel, having decided to strike near Nagpada Junction. When Raje’s car reached the Mazgaon-Nagpada junction, two cars intercepted it. The gangsters executed their plan with precision and fled within a minute. Nine bullets were pumped into Raje, leaving him dead along with his bouncers. Not even the bulletproof windows helped. The windscreens were first shattered with hammers and then guns were pushed through the broken windows. The brawny bouncers and their guns could not save Raje.
With this move, Gawli had declared war against Dawood. Dawood then spoke to his best man, Chhota Rajan. His instructions were crisp: settle the score soon, and cause greater damage to Gawli. The retaliation took place in less than two weeks, a rare phenomenon in the underworld.
Shyam Sunder Nair worked in a fabrication unit near Dagdi Chawl in Byculla and moonlighted as a driver for the mafia. It was he who drove Raje’s car that night of the killing. Afterwards, he had been taken on by the Gawli gang and employed near Dagdi Chawl.
Chhota Rajan employed the same trick that Gawli had used. He approached Shyam Sunder Nair, who was now driving Gawli’s men. Chhota Rajan and Parab bought him over to their side with gifts and cash.
One day, Ashok Joshi asked Nair to drive him to Pune. Nair, who had already defected to Dawood’s gang, immediately informed Parab, who passed on the information to Rajan. Within hours, a death squad had been assembled to eliminate Joshi.
Nair was instructed to ensure that there was insufficient fuel in the car. As per the plan, when the needle on the fuel meter began going south, Nair, who was at the wheel of the Maruti van, told his boss that they needed to refuel. The Omni van, a favourite getaway vehicle of gangsters in those days, began approaching the petrol pump at Panvel.
Sautya was armed with an AK-47 and had more than ten men on his squad, ready for the assault. The guns were distributed even as the five cars speeded towards the Pune highway.
Dawood did not want to merely kill Joshi – he wanted his revenge to be as gruesome as the killing of Satish Raje had been. And it was. Parab later boasted that Joshi’s killing was a feather in his cap. The brinjal-like hitman had begun improving his resume and was slowly transforming himself into a successful killer.
When Gawli had decided to zero in on Dawood’s top confidantes who kept his coffers overflowing with cash, he had no idea what he was triggering. He had thought he would hurt Dawood financially by killing Satish Raje, his man on the ground in the city. He hadn’t anticipated Ashok Joshi’s elimination: emotional collateral damage, and a big setback to the BRA gang.
The whole cycle of vendetta had begun with the feud between Rama Naik and Sharad Shetty, and Dawood arbitrating against Naik. When Naik raised th
e pennant of rebellion, Dawood issued his execution orders.
Ironically, Rama Naik himself was killed in a police encounter by Sub-inspector Rajendra Katdhare. Katdhare had joined the police force in 1975 and had no major accomplishments to his credit until he killed Naik in an encounter.
On 24 July 1987, he was in his office at Nagpada police station in south Mumbai when he received a tip-off about Rama Naik’s whereabouts. Apparently, Naik was getting a haircut at a salon in Chembur. Katdhare lost no time in rushing towards the location.
The ensuing events still remain a mystery. The media reported several different versions, and came up with various backgrounds to the incident. Katdhare himself claimed that he had warned Naik to surrender, but that the gangster had opened fire at him and tried to escape. Katdhare was forced to fire in self-defence, killing Naik.
It was speculated that Dawood had managed to arrange a tip-off for the Nagpada police about Naik’s whereabouts. Normally, in such cases, the cops don’t stop to try and identify the informer because they are pressed for time; they just follow up on the intelligence.
This proved to be a crucial mistake. Katdhare, ironically, had expected a reward for the mega hit. But the killing, one of the most sensational of its time, led to several inquiries, including a magisterial one. Katdhare’s career ended even as it experienced its greatest high, and the Mumbai police force went under a dark cloud.
Katdhare may not have been able to enjoy his success, but others did: the White House in Dubai erupted in celebration. Sharad Shetty was overjoyed by the elimination of his rival and elated that he had managed to do it in such a manner that nobody could question or accuse him.
One person, however, wasn’t in a festive mood; he was in mourning. He sat alone, reflecting on all that had happened and joining the dots. Arun Gawli had just seen the first strategic step Dawood had taken to weaken his gang. The ‘R’ in the BRA gang was no more.
Raje’s elimination in Dawood’s stronghold of Nagpada, Chhota Rajan’s quick avenging of the killing with Joshi’s murder: the battle lines were drawn, and it was clear that only the strongest would rule.
What Gawli did not realize was that Dawood had begun to decimate his rivals from Dubai, even before Naik and Shetty had got locked in their dispute. He had not liked the idea of the BRA gang from the day it had been raised – and he had begun with B.
His first target was Babu Gopal Reshim, the ‘B’ in the gang. The man was a hardened criminal, but he set himself up for trouble when he molested a woman from the Kanjari community who was bathing in a makeshift bathroom in Kanjarwada in Byculla West. The woman raised an alarm and Babu had to flee the spot, but the entire community was angered by this affront.
When the community elders approached Dagdi Chawl for justice, Babu remained arrogant and got hold of a puny young man who was with the group and attacked him viciously because he felt he was behaving impertinently. As the 26-year-old, Vijay Utekar, lay writhing in pain, he swore revenge.
Utekar made several attempts to get even with Babu, but the goon managed to survive. Finally, fearful for his life, Babu decided to surrender to the cops; he felt he would be safer in jail. But he was mistaken.
No one could imagine that the fight between a tribal boy and Babu would assume such humongous proportions. Gawli too dismissed it as yet another skirmish between gang members. There was no reason for him to suspect that Vijay Utekar had links to the D-Company. Who could imagine that Dawood would seek out Vijay Utekar and collaborate in his efforts to take out their common enemy!
Utekar was agitated and, after several failures, and was willing to go to any lengths to kill Babu. When he heard his nemesis was locked up in a cell at Jacob Circle, he thought up an audacious plan. He first met with Chhota Rajan, who pledged to support him in any attempt on Reshim’s life.
On 5 March 1987, Utekar arrived at Jacob Circle at 1.30 a.m., with Jagdish Khandwal, Kishore Maheshkar, Ravi Grover and Raju Shanker in tow. As he didn’t own a vehicle of his own, he had hired two cabs to bring them there. One person was stationed outside to hold the cabbies at gunpoint, to ensure that escape vehicles were on hand. At first,Vijay tried to talk the guard, Uttam Garte, into believing that he wanted to deliver liquor to Reshim. The guard refused to fall for the bait, and an infuriated Vijay retreated and hurled grenades at the gates, blowing them to bits.
The five men stormed into the jail and rushed towards Cell No. 1 on the ground floor, where Reshim was. Vijay broke the lock on the door with a hammer, and one imagines Reshim was excited at first – someone was trying to rescue him, he must have thought.
Imagine his horror when he discovered the man at his door was none other than the vengeful Vijay! He pressed himself to the wall of the cell, but Vijay fired three quick shots and Reshim died a quick death.
Vijay was in no mood to let him off so easily. He took a hammer and smashed Reshim’s head to a pulp. All that remained were mangled bits of bone and a mash of brain splattered across the cold stone floor of the cell and on Vijay’s clothing.
Vindicated, Vijay fled with his accomplices into the night. The police, however, had a tarnished image to deal with the next morning. A brutal murder on their watch! The government set up a commission to investigate the happenings of that night and Utekar was hunted down relentlessly by the police. His fellow henchmen denied outright any connection with him, for fear of being implicated. He was now on his own, running for his life.
Finally, he was cornered at a hotel in Dadar, in October of the same year, and shot dead by Vasant Dhoble and Kishore Phadnis, policemen who had disguised themselves as milkmen. A bag full of explosives was apparently found in his possession.
Much later, when the dust had begun to settle, the khabri network went into overdrive over the person who had played a pivotal role in the incident but who remained camouflaged: Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. Apparently he had masterminded the entire plan, then took a backseat and enjoyed the proceedings.
A police dossier states: ‘When the fact that Dawood had masterminded the killing of Babu Reshim came to light, the enmity between Dawood and Rama Naik and Arun Gawli groups increased.’
Dawood had used Vijay Utekar as a pawn to get rid of Reshim, and he had succeeded. Gawli, who learned this much later through his own inter-gang espionage network, was infuriated.
If Gawli had managed to kill Raje, Dawood had almost wiped out his peers and partners in crime – Joshi, Naik and Babu. It was three for one. He remained the only survivor of the severely weakened BRA syndicate.
Gawli was devastated and retreated into a shell. Advised to take a sabbatical from violence as he could not match the might of Dawood, he decided to take a step back but he did not want to show that he was scared either. He was uncertain whether he should raise the white flag of truce or hit back when he was ready again.
But Dawood, always several steps ahead, was far from finished. He knew he had to inflict the coup the grâce on Gawli, after which he could rest in peace.
There is a saying in the underworld: ‘Jiski nazar game se hati, woh game se hata’ (He who does not keep his eye on the game eventually loses it). Gawli had become oblivious to Dawood’s diabolical plans to annihilate his gang, and this cost him dearly.
THIRTEEN
Manchekar and Mother
Today, Parel is Upper Worli and Phoenix has brought the world’s luxury brands within easy reach. But long ago, when the sky-bound chimneys of the mills were the only markers of the area, and everybody was living the great textile mill myth, young men with little or no hope and nothing to look forward to except a life of drudgery and poverty, sought to emulate the local dada.
Dawood fans filled the bylanes of Dongri, and Rama Naik acolytes pounded the streets of Lalbaug, looking for the golden ticket that would help them rise above their lower-middle-class existence.
Some boys stumble into crime inadvertently and get caught in its web, but there are others who are sure about their trajectory from the beginning. Barely out of his teens,
at eighteen, Suresh Manchekar was fired by his desire to become the top gangster in his area – the Dadar-Parel-Lalbaug-Byculla belt.
Born in 1964, he took to crime in 1982. As he was very young and a school dropout at that, he could not get a decent job and took to working at a garage in Sewri. But soon, he left that job and sought a partnership with Guru Satam, who had already established his criminal credentials in the area. Satam decided to indulge him.
Manchekar thought that the only way to make people fear him was to stick a knife into them at the slightest pretext, and he made this his method. Once he got noticed, he wanted to team up with the Bapat gang and later with Babya of the Golden Gang, but they both brushed him off. He seemed too young, and there was something objectionable about him. He had curly hair, he wore a look of perpetual astonishment in his eyes, his body language betrayed a severe lack of confidence – he was nondescript. In the mafia world, bravura was the basic qualification, and that is exactly what the 18-year-old did not have.
So, after flailing attempts at stardom in the organized mafia, Manchekar decided to strike out on his own. He had to overshadow Rama Naik’s fame with little or no help from Guru Satam. Systematically, he began targeting people and spreading fear in the locality. Soon, money began trickling in, even as news of his terror tactics spread. Once, during a drinking session with Guru Satam, Manchekar began throwing his weight around and claimed that he was the boss. Satam, who was older than him, thought the idea preposterous. An eighteen-year-old upstart could not tell him to step down and proclaim himself head of the gang. The argument soon escalated into fisticuffs, and a younger and fitter Manchekar managed to thrash an inebriated Satam.
Satam was furious and decided to teach Manchekar a lesson. But he would savour the dessert of his revenge cold. He soon joined the Chhota Rajan gang, which was just beginning to come up in the late eighties. And he vowed that before he began serving his new boss full time, he would finish Manchekar.