REAL ESTATE IS THE NEW BIG HUNTING GROUND

While unabated gang wars in the mafia in the Eighties gave birth to the rise of encounter specialists of the Mumbai police, the sociology of crime itself has undergone a sea change in the 21st century. With most of their foot soldiers decimated through police encounter killings and stringent laws like the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), the big bosses of the Mumbai underworld were forced to diversify and look for other modes of revenue generation.

With the heads of the four big mafia groups languishing behind bars –- Arun Gawli convicted for killing a Shiv Sena leader; Abu Salem convicted for his role in the serial blasts of 1993, Ashwin Naik for various extortion cases and Chhota Rajan in Tihar jail enjoying his wellearned retirement –– the mafia scene is completely cold in Mumbai.

While the Eighties and Nineties were characterised by supari killings, extortion, the flesh

trade, dance bar protection rackets, the 21st century is all about real estate and Bollywood.

Chhota Rajan still manages to pull strings in Mumbai but not with the same vigour that he did in his heyday and Chhota Shakeel has free control over his fledgling gang empire in the city but with riders. Currently, a late entrant to the scene, Ravi Poojari, the killer of lawyer Shahid Azmi, is the only ganglord who has somehow managed to stick it out.

“Over 500 million square feet of construction activities are in full swing between Andheri and Dahisar. These properties cannot be acquired, developed or constructed without the appropriate use of muscle. The businessmen need the underworld and vice versa. So the mafia will never starve for money,” disclosed a senior officer from the crime branch.