Mumbai gangster walks out of jail, with some help from James Hadley Chase

Officials in Mumbai and Thane fear that the wily gangster may be already in Bahrain or Dubai where he planned to settle with his girl friend. Worse, he could be eyeing a large slice of the Mumbai underworld pie.

On August 16, Kalyan additional judge A D Gondhane wanted Garigapatti in court in connection with the 1990 murder of Ulhasnagar traders Ghanshyam Sunderdas Batija and his brother Inder.

But Garigapatti was not to be found though he should have been in Arthur Road jail. After frantically rummaging through records, aghast officials found he had been granted bail on June 12.

According to documents, a factory worker from Kolsewadi in Kalyan, Lahu Shiva Sonkamble, had stood guarantee for the gangster.

When Sonkamble was tracked down, he told the court he had never heard of the man.

Garigappatti probably picked up Sonkamble’s name and address from an inmate in jail and used it to good effect to fake his bail papers and walk free.

Says Crime Branch inspector Pradeep Sharma: ‘‘Garigapatti is a very patient plotter while brewing destructive schemes.’’ He read a James Hadley Chase novel and borrowed the plot.

Son of an Indian Revenue Service officer, Garigappati was named in the 1992 JJ Hospital shootout with Subhash Singh Thakur, landed in jail but never stopped operating.