Anwar Sheikh; from goon to Badshah

Anwar began his career when he masterminded large-scale land grabbing in the protected environs of Sanjay Gandhi National Park bordering Goregoan in ’88. He was initiated into serious crime by his brother-in-law Mohammed Ali Kanjari alias Vikram Parmar, a trusted lieutenant of mafia leader Chhota Shakeel in ’96.

Anwar graduated to a shooter with the killing of Navnath More at Goregoan in ’96. This was followed by some other murders. The murder of Mehboob Malabari at Oshiwara in Jogeshwari in ’96 catapulted him to one of Shakeel’s top hitmen in the city.

There are unconfirmed reports that the dreaded shooter was involved in the killing of Rupam Stores owner Bharat Shah in and rival gangster Hussain Vastara in ’98 after his release from jail.

The elusive gangster soon found himself in league with some top hitmen like Nilesh Kokam and Chand Mastan alias Kanjari when Chhota Shakeel wanted to unleash terror among politicians in the city. The dreaded gangster was the immediate choice.

According to senior crime branch officers Anwar Badshah was entrusted the killing of some city politician, including a former Chief Minister. A large cache of arms were provided to the formation comprising of Shiv Jankiprasad Gupta and Pappu from Kurla.

Anwar acquired the nickname `Badshah’ after he was assigned this task of killing some politician. According to underworld parlance the nickname is given to someone entrusted with big business.

Anwar Badshah was finally gunned down by a special squad consisting of Senior Police Inspector Prafulla Bhosale, PSI Hemant Desai and S Dhumal at Vikhroli on July 15 last year. Threats to some of the top politicians in the city were considerably reduced after the encounter.

However, the family is still linked with the underworld. Anwar’s younger brother Ismail is cuurently serving a jail term for his involvement in the killing of Rupam Store owner Bharat Shah in 1998.

His sister Saira is the wife of Mohammed Ali Kanjari, the de facto leader of Shakeel gang in the city. The other members of the family are directly or indirectly involved in supporting gang activities in the city, according to police sources.