From gangsters to grocers: Tale of two Mumbai dons
Two men trapped in a Mumbai teeming with dons and gangs escaped the bloody wars they fought, stopped running from the law, and decided instead to run their lives. They saw a second chance come their way and grabbed it.
FROM GANGSTER TO CHOCOLATE SALESMAN
Rahul Ramakant Jadhav never left home without his 9mm pistol, the grip of the weapon sticking out from the waistband of his trousers. That was a decade ago, when he was the chief strategist and hitman for fugitive underworld kingpin Ravi Pujari’s extortion ring in Mumbai and Thane.
Today, Jadhav is running — not from the police but to qualify for this year’s Boston Marathon. And he sells chocolates for a living. The same gangster who was thrice booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and half a dozen attempt to murder and arms act cases for a series of shootouts is today employed with a confectionaries manufacturing company at Byculla and gets paid ₹12,000 a month.
“I joined as a salesman eight months ago. I distribute chocolate bars at hotels, shops and offices.”
With no job or source of income, Jadhav was thrilled when a friend asked if he would work for fugitive don Guru Satam, who had just defected from Chhota Rajan, in early 2000. It was quick money and Jadhav jumped at it.
“I first spoke to Satam when I was trying to arrange money for my friend’s bail. Satam spoke to me briefly and handed the phone over to his deputy Ravi Pujari.”
Regular phone calls followed, and he and Pujari became good friends. “Money just flowed into my pocket. For every firing, I got between ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh. For every ₹10 lakh laundered through hawala, my cut was ₹2 lakh.”
The next few years would see Jadhav’s gang going on a shooting spree in Thane and Mumbai. Jadhav became one of Mumbai’s most wanted criminal.
The next three years Jadhav spent in jail, he said, was when his crimes really dawned on him. So when Jadhav got bail in 2010, he tried to change.
He wandered around jobless for the next three years, before a final acquittal order came in 2013. “By this time, I had contracted TB. Smoking and alcohol had ruined me.”
HITMAN TO VEGETABLE VENDOR
Deepak Jayram Rahate sells vegetables in a corner in Dadar’s crowded wholesale market. Poverty and uncontrolled juvenile rage in a Bombay with a thriving underworld — Rahate was unwittingly drawn towards the mafia. “Gangs tap boys from such backgrounds,” he says.
Rahate was a sharp-shooter for a gang, booked thrice under the terrorist and disruptive activities (prevention) act (TADA) for murder, extortion and use of firearms.
His father worked in a watchstrap manufacturing company at Mumbai Central. When the company shut down, Rahate was just 14. “I had to quit studies in Class 8 because my family — parents, a younger brother and sister could not afford food otherwise. I started selling milk and newspapers.” But the going wasn’t easy for Rahate. Once, his brother was thrashed by a man in a neighbouring lane. “I lost my cool, ran into the enemy territory and attacked the man with a bamboo stick and an iron rod. He was badly injured.” Amar Naik, who was rising to power then, bailed him out. “I was obliged to him.”
In the months that followed, he carried out a series of deadly attacks on the Dawood Ibrahim gang, earning him threats from the don and setting the police on his trail.
Rahate lost his only daughter when he was on the run.
Jail time, marriage, a lecture by Kiran Bedi and a helping hand from a top cop helped Rahate get his life back on track.
Rahate was acquitted in all cases by 1998. He went back to selling vegetables, adopted his ailing brother-in-law’s son and daughter, educated them and got them married last year.
In the 7 years I spent as a wanted criminal, I was never home. The fear of getting caught by police or targeted by rivals always haunted me. I was on the run... My mother never accepted my money... RAHUL RAMAKANT JADHAV, a former hitman for Ravi Pujari