Mr Arun Gulab Gawli gets his bullet-proof jacket: MLA win

In the Mumbai underworld, they call it 8216;8216;bullet-proof jacket.8217;8217; Many of them aspire for it, some try but few get it. Aru...

In the Mumbai underworld, they call it 8216;8216;bullet-proof jacket.8217;8217; Many of them aspire for it, some try but few get it. Arun Gulab Gawli, 52, the only resident ganglord of Mumbai, has just got the 8216;bullet-proof jacket8217;, the tag of an MLA, the magic shield from encounters and rivals.

He just managed to escape one in 8217;97 when a police crack squad under former Deputy Commissioner of Police, Param Bir Singh barged into his hideout on August 19, 1997 and killed three of his associates but spared him.

Police officials recall that wearing a white 8216;kurta pajama8217;, Gawli was left with no choice but desperately cling to his wife Asha who was shielding him. 8216;8216;Mala vachva8230; mala vachva save me8217;8217; he was screaming when an armed squad broke into his spacious living room.

The squad slipped out but minutes later Vijay Kamble alias Muchwa, Vijay Shirodkar alias Sade Teen and Pankaj Pandya were gunned down in the adjoining room on the second floor. Sources say Gawli was spared because he was being interviewed by a journalist when they broke in. The last thing they wanted was a journalist as witness to the encounter.

8216;8216;I do not want to discuss anything now,8217;8217; said one of the raiding officers, who did not want to be named. 8216;8216;He can retaliate8230; this is one of the worst days for Mumbai police,8217;8217; he added.

The police raids traced five secret cellars measuring about 6 feet by 3 feet under his wardrobe, kitchen room and hall. Similar cellars were found in his erstwhile second-in-command and present municipal corporator Sunil Ghate8217;s residence on the first floor of the adjoining building. An estimated 20 hideouts were dug up during police8217;s subsequent forays into Dagdi Chawl.

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Gawli never took chances with the police. His entourage comprised women whenever he was released from prison.

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From an errand boy of the underworld to the MLA of Chinchpokli, the journey took about two decades. It was with the murder of Cobra gang leader Shashi Rasam that put Gawli among the upper echelons of underworld in 1977. He was externed from the city for the next two years before he was again booked under the provisions of National Security Act.

Gawli assumed the mantle of the 8216;Byculla Company8217; after the death of his mentor Rama Naik in 1987. Gawli was named in over six murders in the city.

His entry into politics was in fact the beginning of the end of his gang. In the two years after he floated the Akhil Bhartiya Sena in 1996, over 30 of his gangsters were killed. But in 2004, he emerged as a local leader mainly due to his penchant to solve the 8216;8216;bijli, sadak and pani8217;8217; problems of chawl residents in Mumbai8217;s hitherto neglected Central Mumbai areas.

Now the police team which terrorised him has a nightmare: to provide security to the new MLA of Chinchpokli.

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