Arun Gawli

Arun Gawli
Personal details
Born	unknown India
Spouse(s)	Asha Gawli

Arun Gulab Gawli (Marathi: अरुण गवळी), known to his followers as "Daddy", is an alleged criminal turned politician from Mumbai, India. He is based at Dagdi Chawl in Byculla- Saat Rasta, Mumbai. In 2004, he was elected as a MLA from the Mumbai Chinchpokli Constituency as an Akhil Bharatiya Sena candidate.

Gawli's rise in prominence is believed to be due to his "native roots" as a local lad, which makes him distinct from most other non-Marathi-speaking dons. Gawli also differs in that he is Hindu (his wife, Ashatai [ d/o Mohammed Shaikh Lal Mujawar "Nanhubhai" of Vadgaon-Paanchpir, Dist. Pune] alias Mummy was a Muslim) while most other dons are Muslim. Gawli was at one point actively supported by Bal Thackeray, but his ties to Thackeray and the Shiv Sena later broke down when Gawli's boys mercilessly slew several Sena legislators and party workers. Terrified, the hithero fearless Sena members found themselves at the receiving end of their own terror tactics. In the Mumbai underworld, Gawli actively carried out kidnappings and extortions and was believed to have been supported by some powerful bureaucrats and politicians following the vacuum created by Dawood Ibrahim's flight from Mumbai. As he slowly began to lose relevance, Gawli stepped into mainstream politics, burning his bridges with his former mentors.

Arun Gawli, like many other alleged criminals arose mostly from the fallout of the infamous Cotton Textile Mills strike of Mumbai in the 1970s in which millions of mill workers were rendered jobless. All of the above, with the singular exception of Gawli, were subsequently brutally murdered by their mafia rivals. Those who were left took to a life of petty crime. The Dagdi Chawl syndicate was originally aligned with the D-Company but subsequently split up after infighting over the division of spoils. Gawli who earlier was a small-time charge-sheeter in the Byculla-Mahalaxmi-Agripada-Parel/Naigaum-Chinchpokli area is considered as the undisputed Don of Dagdi Chawl and his word is law in some parts of Mumbai. ^[1]

Gawli is a protege of the late Ramabhai Naik, who in 1986 gunned down supari-king Karim Lala's nephew, the dreaded Samad Khan, and paved the way for Dawood Ibrahim to become the undisputed don of the Mumbai underworld. Rama Naik himself was soon slain in an 'encounter' with Nagpada police PSI Rajan Katdhare in 1988, allegedly at the behest of Dawood Ibrahim, but is still worshiped by Gawli and his henchmen as the original godfather of Byculla's Dagdi Chawl.

Early career

This mill worker’s son tried his hand at a factory job, but lacked the patience. He then turned his Dagdi Chawl home into a mini-fortress and began a brief flirtation with Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan. Once Papa Gawli was killed by his erstwhile partners, he launched the Gawli gang, which cut its teeth on property disputes and workers’ unions in the dying mills. Even while he completed his jail term in the 1990s—he was convicted under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act in 1993 and sentenced to four years—he kept Central Mumbai in an iron grip. After the blasts, Gawli was suddenly the Hindu don the Shiv Sena could adopt. As the senior Thackeray once said: “If they have Dawood, we have Gawli”. Gawli was released in 1997 and broke away from the Sena to form the Akhil Bharatiya Sena. Between 1997 and 2004, Gawli has been arrested in over 15 cases—but convicted in none. He’s given up crime, ostensibly, but remains Mumbai’s solitary resident don.^[2]

Politics and Jail

Gawli has been in and out of jail several times and spent more than ten years in judicial custody, but has never actually been convicted. It is alleged that even during his period of custody, Gawli ran his criminal empire of kidnappings, extortion and murder from behind bars at Nashik, Pune and Yerawada very efficiently with the aid mobile phone and willing prison and police officials. His political outfit composed of criminals and disgruntled politicos from other parties, Akhil Bharatiya Sena also is supposed to have taken its shape in the jail. His judicial custody also helped him to avoid assassination attempts by the rival Dawood Ibrahim/Chhota Shakeel and Chhota Rajan Gangs. His decision to enter politics and become a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly also ensured that he would not get "taken out" by a police hit squad in an "encounter".

Gawli was married Asha Gawli, popularly referred as "Mummy" and has two children. Gawli's political designs suffered a major blow when his nephew and party legislator, Sachin Ahir, came out openly against him and joined Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party. He even contested against Gawli in the subsequent Lok Sabha elections on a Nationalist Congress Party ticket, resulting in defeat for them both, but victory for the Shiv Sena's sitting MP Mohan Rawle. His daughter was recently elected as a corporator to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

Gawli has been acquitted in most of his cases in which he was charged with exception of murder case of Shiv Sena leader Kamalakar Jamsandekar.

References

1. ^ Najm, Quaied (2003-03-16). "Reporters' Diary: In the don's lair". The Week (Malayala Manorama Group). Archived from the original on February 11, 2005. http://web.archive.org/web/20050211172154/http://www.the-week.com/23mar16/events12.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-19. 
2. ^ http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=91939

Persondata
Name	Gawli, Arun
Alternative names
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Place of birth	India
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