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Arun Gawli, 11 others get life for
corporator's murder
A special Mumbai court Friday sentenced
mafia don-turned-politician Arun Gawli and 11 of his associates to
life imprisonment in the 2007 murder of Shiv Sena corporator
Kamlakar Jamsandekar.
Maharashtra Control of Organised »
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Mumbai:
The law has finally caught up with the Big Daddy of Mumbai mafia,
Arun Gulabrao Ahir, or simply Arun Gawli, with a special court
Friday sentencing him and 11 others to life for the 2007 killing
of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar.
Gawli, who for four decades played a cat-and-mouse game with the
law enforcement agencies, has finally met his nemesis. This is his
first conviction though he has been arrested several times for
various crimes, including murder, extortion and kidnapping.
Gawli, who is in his mid 60s and is always seen with a Gandhi cap,
was elected legislator in the 2004 assembly elections and
continued to be one till 2009. In 2008, he was nabbed for
Jamsandekar's murder along with over a dozen associates. He was
also externed from Mumbai.
He contested the 2009 assembly elections from lock-up but lost, as
did all other 20 nominees of his Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS).
Few, including Gawli, realised then that it was the beginning of
the end for his mafia and political empire.
He spread his web from the fortress-like Dagdi Chawl in south
Mumbai, where he lived with his family and "extended" family,
comprising neighbours, members of his group and activists ready to
die for him.
Gawli also lorded over the ABS, floated in 1997 as a rival to the
Shiv Sena after it bagged power with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
in 1995.
The ABS was formed to counter the policy of "encounter (staged
shootout) killings" encouraged and rewarded by the Shiv Sena-BJP
government, with Gopinath Munde as deputy chief minister holding
the crucial home department.
The staged shootouts gave rise to an awed new tribe among police
-- that of the "encounter specialists" -- many among whom claimed
to have dozens, and some even having more than 100 scalps, under
their belts.
The fortunate Gawli, who always took care to move around
surrounded by a huge group of womenfolk, survived all of this.
Gawli had earlier been virtually the blue-eyed boy of the Shiv
Sena, which fondly referred to him as "a Hindu don" to rival the
likes of Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, Chhota Shakeel, Abu Salem and
others.
Long before he joined politics, "Daddy" Gawli, as he was known to
one and all, had built up an impressive curriculum vitae during
his long mafia innings.
His name figured in major kidnappings, extortions, contract
killings and other major crimes with the willy-nilly support of
many politicians from different parties and bureaucrats out to
settle personal scores.
Affiliated to the Dawood gang and starting with the likes of Amar
Naik, Rama Naik, Babu Reshim, Ashok Choudhary alias Chhota babu,
Guru Satam alias Mama, Anil Parab, Tatya Koli and others, most of
whom were killed by police, the notorious Dagdi Chawl "syndicate"
ultimately crumbled, leaving Gawli a haunted and scared person.
Perched on a huge sofa on the plush fourth floor terrace of the
Dagdi Chawl, Gawli had once expressed his deepest fear - being
killed by Vijay Salaskar, a police officer.
"Woh mere ko kabhi bhi uda sakta hai... Isliye main akela bahar
nahi jata (He can kill me any moment... this is the reason I do
not venture out alone)," he confided in a whisper to this
correspondent in 2005.
Salaskar was killed while combating Pakistani terrorists in the
26/11 Mumbai terror attack, while Gawli was jailed in 2008.
Since his prosecution began, the "Daddy" of Dagdi Chawl took care
to ensure his "boys" were not orphaned.
While his English-speaking graduate daughter Geeta is a municipal
corporator and now manages the ABS affairs with her mother Asha
(formerly Ayesha, a Muslim), the "boys" of his gang are now
veering to strictly legal businesses and avoiding a brush with the
law. He has another daughter, who is not in politics.
In the late 1990s, Gawli suffered a major setback when his nephew,
Sachin, parted company with him to join the Nationalist Congress
Party. He is now a minister in the ruling Democratic Front
government in Maharashtra.
With dons like Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, Chhota Rajan
Nikhalje and others absconding or killed, and the Gawli gang now
staring at a bleak future, Mumbai's mean streets would hopefully
become safer.
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