Dawood vs Rajan: Old gangs,fresh battle

In recent years,several new gangs have been trying to carve out a space for themselves. Mostly led by former aides who had left Rajan,they had been executing most of the major hits since then. Such ganglords include Ravi Pujari,Bharat Nepali,Santosh Shetty and his close aide Vijay Shetty,all former Rajan henchmen.

Yet,police sources say that Rajan,however depleted his gang might have become,still controls a network capable of pulling off such bold attacks.

“When they were part of the Dawood Ibrahim gang,Chhota Shakeel controlled only about 20 per cent of the operations in India,while Rajan was at the helm of the rest of the network. While his forces may have weakened,and he himself is suffering from kidney problems,Rajan still has considerable pull and operational capability to plan and execute big attacks,” said a senior Mumbai Police officer. He added,“Dawood is trying to invest heavily in Mumbai through real estate deals.”

All of this has raised fears of a fresh,full-blown war between the two gangs.

Rajan has already been named as the man behind two shootings in the same neighbourhood. On July 29,2009,Zahid Ghulam Hassan Mir alias Chhote Miyan was shot dead along with his nephew Syed Arshad Hussain in Nagpada. Police say Miyan had lost crores betting on the 2008 IPL,his creditors had contacted Rajan,and Miyan himself had approached the Dawood gang for protection.

The second attack,in Bhendi Bazaar on February 13,2010,left Asif Dadi injured and Shakeel Modak and Mohammed Qureshi dead. The motive is not clear but the police feel it had something to do with Dadi’s association with the Dawood gang. Dadi had been arrested in 2004 in a case where Shakeel and Faheem Machmach were named as fugitives.

In October 2010,the Mumbai Police said Rajan had ordered both firings and announced the arrest of two alleged shooters. A sophisticated 0.38-bore Titan Tiger revolver,imported from the US,was recovered by police who said it was the first time such a weapon had been used in such an attack.

Most other major strikes since 2010 have involved the newer gangs. The February 2010 murder of advocate Shahid Azmi,who was defending Fahim Ansari in the 26/11 trial,has been linked to Bharat Nepali and Vijay Shetty,who apparently wanted to make a statement. Linked to the same pair was the June 2010 murder of Rajan aide Farid Tanasha,shot at his home in Tilak Nagar,a Rajan stronghold.

Between June and September 2010,the Ravi Pujari gang was involved in several shooting incidents outside offices and stores. In February and March this year,shooters allegedly from this gang fired on engineers and supervisors at two construction sites,killing two in the second attack.

Then the latest attack brought the spotlight back on the Dawood and Rajan gangs. The fact that a shooter from Nepal was recruited is in tune with a recent trend of,as one Crime Branch officer put it,bringing in “freelance criminals” to make investigation difficult. “Most gangsters now carry out attacks by paying youths who do not belong to the city and do not work for a particular gang. Once the job is completed they return home,” said an officer.

Another possible reason is that the newer gangs do not have enough foot-soldiers in the city. “They have a few handlers in the city,who recruit shooters from other states such as UP,Uttarakhand,Karnataka and Bihar to carry out an attack,” said Addl CP (Crime) Deven Bharti.

Bharti insists that gangland activities are at a low. “We have maintained a tight noose on the underworld,and if one checks the crime records… there has been no spike in underworld activities. Extortion is at a low,with people like Ravi Pujari and Santosh Shetty literally begging people for money. A few loyalists still send money to Rajan,” he said.