Dongri to Dubai - Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia: Six Decades of Mumbai Mafia

by S. Hussain Zaidi

He had always wanted an alliance with the Muslim mafia,

assimilating the fact that he, a small time crook, was now muscleman for the powerful,

networks were made based on Varda’s contacts during his days as a porter.

The two men from Uttar Pradesh worked out at Baashu Dada’s

Carnac Bunder area lies at the periphery of Bombay’s three big markets Mohatta Market, Manish Market, and Crawford Market, a legacy of the colonial era.

The term supari comes from an old story of kings and warriors.

Legend of Supari

After all, Dawood was the darling of the Bombay police.

Image of Dawood

Why not bring the Dalits and Muslims together? Both of them are downtrodden and oppressed groups of people, he thought, and both have an axe to grind with the system, as Dalits and Muslims both feel the government has been unfair to them.

Political tone to Mastan

misnomer. Once upon a time, stalwarts of the Indian National Congress who spearheaded the freedom movement in India had set up base at Congress House.

But many a girl has the mistaken perception that she must be wooed by a flashy lifestyle.

A perception of the writer

The scene was later immortalised in Rahul Rawail’s Hindi potboiler, the Sunny Deol-starrer Arjun. The scene I speak of was a straight lift from real life.

Reference to Movie

parties like the Shiv Sena had not started organising bandhs and it was a concept almost pioneered by gangsters.

Political agitation seeds for regular outfits.

Kunju was well aware of this age old law of mafia revenge.

From where is he making this claim?

The cops in their short-sighted wisdom had decided to promote one outlaw to tackle other outlaws.

A comment on police methodolgy

According to the history of the Mumbai police, the first ever encounter that took place at the hands of the Mumbai police was that of Manohar alias Manya Surve, in which Ishaq Bagwan was hailed as a hero and got his name into the police archives as the first encounter cop. Reams and reams of newsprint were devoted to the pontification that the encounters were the brainchild of the then police chief Julio Ribeiro. During his stint in Punjab, it was said, he had found this to be an effective method to handle anarchists. Later, when Khalistani separatist ultras tried to make Mumbai their base, Additional Commissioner of Police Aftab Ahmed Khan, who was the chief of the Anti-Terrorism Squad, had taken on the Sikh militants and ostensibly dubbed the whole skirmish as encounters.

Theory of Police Encounter.