Pappu Kalani

Infobox Person
name = Suresh "Pappu" Kalani


caption =
birth_date = birth date and age|1951|0|0
birth_place =
death_place =
occupation = Politician
salary =
networth =
spouse = Jyoti Kalani
children = 2
website =
footnotes =

Pappu Kalani (born 1951) is an Indian criminal-politician from Ulhasnagar (asuburb of
Mumbai, India). After emerging as the leader of an organized crimesyndicate in the 1980s cite news
title = Pappu's Ulhasnagar gambit may backfire
author = Girish Kuber
publisher = Economic Times
url = http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Pappus_Ulhasnagar_gambit_may_backfire/articleshow/msid-1102026,curpg-2.cms
date = 2007-01-09
accessdate = 2007-05-24Quote: Suresh "Pappu" Kalani: a man who is seen as the personification of this lawlessness in (Ulhasnagar)] , he won elections for the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in 1986 with the Indian National Congress party, and has been elected continuously from this seatsince then, including two elections in the period1992-2001 when he was in jail on murder charges. His formal name is Suresh Budharmal Kalani and Pappu may be a nickname,though he prefers it as part of the formal name, writing Suresh (Pappu) Budharmal Kalani in his election papers [ [http://ceo.maharashtra.gov.in/genesys/55/Suresh(Pappu)BudharmalKalani/Suresh(Pappu)BudharmalKalani.htm Suresh (Pappu) Budharmal Kalani's electoral declaration in 2004] ] .Pappu Kalani is how he is inevitably referred to, however.

He is currently on bail in 19 cases including eight of murdercite news
title = The States: Dons in a new role
author = Dionne Bunsha
publisher = The Hindu
url = http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2125/stories/20041217001704400.htm
date = 2004-12-17
accessdate = 2007-05-24] and was most recently electedthe MLA for Ulhasnagar fromthe Republican Party of India (Athavale) in the Maharashtra state assembly elections, 2004.

Life and career

Born into a wealthy family, Pappu Kalani's uncle Dudhichand Kalani was the president of the local unit of Indian National Congress. The family ran a liquor business and owned a number ofdistilleries and hotelscite news
title = Pappu Kalani is free: bluster intact, not his base
author = Tanushree Chakraborty
publisher = Indian Express
url = http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie20010906/top6.html
date = September 06, 2001
accessdate = 2007-05-24Pappu Kalani is quoted as saying: ‘‘There is no politician in India who has contested twoelections from jail and has won both. I am among the very few persons in thecountry with eight TADA cases registered against me’’] . In the 1970s, Ulhasnagar was a booming lawless town settled by entrepreneurial refugees who had emigrated from Sind, Pakistan afterthe Partition of India in 1947. Sharp businesspractices (Ulhasnagar was known for its "duplicate"s or forged goods)combined with illegal construction and unauthorised industrial units made foran atmosphere where "protection" emerged as a profitable business.

A number of gangs were soon working under the patronage of politicalparties. Pappu Kalani's uncle Keemat Kalani, also affiliated with theCongress party, ran the gangheaded by Chiman Tejwani, while the opposing parties,under politician Gop Behrani, employed the gang of Govind Vachani and Gopal Rajwani. It is reported that both gangs were connected to the
Dawood Ibrahim gang. Use was also made of the media, and hush money wereregularly paid to journalistscite news
title = Three Ps rule Ulhas: Pelf, Politicians & Pappu
author = Yogesh Pawar
publisher = Indian Express
url = http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19990303/ige03076p.html
date = 1999-03-03
accessdate = 2007-05-24] .

In 1983, Gopal Rajwani was for a while aligned with Pappu Kalani, and they executedthe brutal knife murder of theeditor A V Narayan of Blitz magazinecite news
title = Sena leader Gopal Rajwani shot dead
author = Jake Khan, Ulhasnagar
publisher = India Abroad
url = http://www.indiaabroad.com/news/2000/jan/25jake.htm
date = 2000-01-25
accessdate = 2007-05-24
location = Ulhasnagar] . Rajwani wasarrested for this, but he was eventually acquitted due to lack of witnessesand shoddy prosecution.

In 1986, Pappu Kalani was elected president of the Ulhasnagar Municipal Council (UMC), and the same year, he was chosen by the Indian National Congress party asits candidate for the state legislature fromUlhasnagar, and easily won the seat.

Meanwhile Gopal Rajwani and Pappu had fallen outover the division of extortion money. In April 1985, Rajwani was arrested in an extortion case, apparently atKalani's bidding. As Rajwaniwas being escorted to the police station in a rickshaw, Kalaniarranged for his men to attack him with bombs and guns. Rajwani survived theattack and eventually relocated to Dubai, with the help of Haji Mastan, anotorious smuggler and senior don of that time.

In April 1989, Pappu's uncle Dudhichand Kalani was murdered, allegedly by theGovind Vachani / Gopal Rajwani gangcite web
title = Suresh alias Pappu Bhudharmal Kalani v. State of Maharashtra
author = Justices K.T. Thomas & D.P. Mohapatra
publisher = Supreme Court of India
url = http://www.austlii.edu.au/~andrew/CommonLII/INSC/2001/140.html
url-cache = http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:oyY65ZSwuT4J:www.austlii.edu.au/~andrew/CommonLII/INSC/2001/140.html+SURESH+ALIAS+PAPPU+BHUDHARMAL+KALANI+v.+STATE+OF+MAHARASHTRA&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a
date = 2 March 2001
accessdate = 2007-05-29The prosecution case presented at the start of this judgement details clearly the story of the long-standing rivalry between the Gopal Rajwani and Pappu Kalani gangs. Then it discusses in detail the special TADA court judgement refusing to transfer the case to an ordinary sessions court (as opposed to a terrorist court) arguing that the use of an illegal firearm, and also the fact that "prima facie", Pappu Kalani was identified by two witnesses (including a dying declaration) using the firearm to execute a murder (based on spent cartridges), is sufficient at least to proceed for trial under TADA.] , at theinstance of Gop Behrani. This led to reprisal killings - as many as 22 murders in fivemonths. It was said during this period that"there would be a killing in Ulhasnagar every Tuesday."It was during this period that Pappu Kalani emerged as the leader of his ownorganized crime gang.

Bhateja, Shetty, and Jadhav murders

In February and April 1990, nephews of Gop Behrani, Ghanashyam and Inder Bhateja wereshot dead, despite having been given state police protectioncite news
title = Tada charges against Kalani dropped in Bhateja murders
publisher = Indian Express
url = http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19991028/ige28138.html
date = 1999-10-28
accessdate = 2007-05-24] . Also shot dead in 1990 were gangster Anna Shetty, and rickshaw union leader and bodyguard of Rajwani, Maruti Jadhav, both of whom wereaffiliated with the Gopal Rajwani gang. Jadhav in his dying declaration, as well as another person who was injured in the revolver attack, identified Pappu Kalani personally, and he would later be refused bail inthis murder casecite news
title = Pappu Kalani refused bail in murder case
author = Indian Express
url = http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19980910/25350034.html
date = September 10, 1998
accessdate = 2007-05-25] .

In 1990, when Pappu Kalani was formally named in some of these murderscite news
title = The F-factor: Kalani certain of clean sweep
author = Gouri Shah
publisher = Economic Times
url = http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/880573.cms
date = October 11, 2004
accessdate = 2007-05-24] , he was expelled from the Congress party.

In 1992, when the clean-imaged Sudhakarrao Naik took over as ChiefMinister from Sharad Pawar, he launched a drive against criminal-politicians. Media pressure increased tremendously after the September 1992 shootout where Dawood Ibrahim's gang killed Shailesh Haldankar of the Arun Gawli gang as well as several on-duty policemen at Mumbai's JJ Hospital. Thereafter, Pappu Kalani, along with Bhai Thakur, brother of politician-ganglord Hitendra Thakur, were arrested in November 1992, along with some others gangsters. Pappu was charged with the gang murders from 1990 and with the JJ Hospital shootout-ably executed by D-Company's Shyam Kishore Garikapatti; a total of 19 cases were filed against him. He was jailed underthe repressive Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, which permitted imprisonment for "terrorists" evenwithout trial. Several appeals against his incarceration failed - the courtfound him sufficiently implicated in the Maruti Jadhav murder to label him asa level "A" terrorist, and bail was repeatedly deniedcite news
title = Pappu Kalani refused bail in murder case
author = Indian Express
url = http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19980910/25350034.html
date = September 10, 1998
accessdate = 2007-05-25] . However, TADA laws were found inappropriate in some other charges - particularly for both the Bhateja murders, and also in the JJ Hospital shootout case, which were transferred to a sessions court [cite news
title = Two discharged
publisher = The Tribune, Chandigarh
url = http://www.tribuneindia.com/1998/98sep17/spotlite.htm
date = 1998-09-17
accessdate = 2007-05-25] . However, none of these cases progressed to trial. Altogether, he spent nine years in jail under TADA before being eventually released onbail in 2002.

At one point, Sudhakarrao made a statement that the state leader of Indian National Congress party and erstwhile Chief Minister Sharad Pawar, had asked him to"go easy on Pappu Kalani". At another time,Chief Minister Manohar Joshi of Shiv Sena announced hisintention to prosecute criminal-politicians [cite news
title = Joshi seeks Cabinet nod for probe
author = Prafulla Marpakwar
publisher = Indian Express
url = http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19970609/16050043.html
date = 1997-06-09
accessdate = 2007-05-25] , but political realities ensured that nothing much was done.

Under Indian law, someone who has not been sentenced to morethan two years for a crime cannot be considered guilty of a major crime andis free to fight elections. Thus, despite being in jail, Kalani kept fightingand winning the assembly seat from Ulhasnagar, partly because of thefamily's muscle, but also because in his first term, Kalani had workedto improve the roads and the water supply.

In 1999, when his mentor Sharad Pawar formed the National Congress Party, Pappualso joined it. However, mounting public pressure proved disruptive for thenascent party and he was forced to resign. At this time, he handed over the Municipalcorporation to his wife Jyoti Kalani, who would also soon be arrested oncharges of forgery, non-payment of revenue and illegal liquor manufacturing.

Rajwani murder

Meanwhile, in January 2000, arch rival Gopal Rajwani was shot dead in a hailof bullets as he was coming out of a car at the magistrate's court to attenda case. It was widely believed that Pappu Kalani, at the time still in jail,may have masterminded it.

Immediately after his release from jail in 2001, several cases arose where heallegedly tried to intimidate one Bhoir family, part of whose land had been illegally encroached upon to build the Seema Holiday Home (since demolished) owned by the Kalanis, and also the shopowner Ramesh Rohra [ cite news
title = Pappu Kalani's bail may be revoked
author = Shibu Thomas
publisher = in.news.yahoo.com
url = http://in.news.yahoo.com/031128/149/29xui.html
date = 2003-11-28
accessdate = 2007-05-30] .

In 2004, Pappu Kalani again won the assembly elections, as a candidate of the
Republican Party of India (Athavale). His wife however,continues to be with the National Congress Party.

In 2005, the Bombay High Court ordered the demolition of 855 illegalstructures in Ulhasnagar, Pappu Kalani, a large part of whose extortion money depended onpermitting illegal constructions, passed a law permitting most of them to belegalized [ cite web
title = Pappu Kalani : Hero of Ulhasnagar
url = http://bombaylives.blogspot.com/2005/12/pappu-kalani-hero-of-ulhasnagar.html
date = 2005-12-28
accessdate = 2007-05-24] . However, many structures did not even pay the legalization fees, andlarge scale demolitions were launched in Ulhasnagar for most of 2006.

In the municipal elections of 2007, despite very little electioneering byopposing groups, Pappu Kalani's group mustered only 15 seats (out of 76),and it is thought that the influence of musclepower may have wanedconsiderably in Ulhasnagarcite news
title = Beginning of the end for Kalanis?
publisher = Indian Express
url = http://in.news.yahoo.com/070208/48/6bxhw.html
date = 2007-02-09
accessdate = 2007-05-24] .

Family

Pappu Kalani's wife Jyoti Kalani emerged on her own during the years when hewas out of power or in prison, becoming the president (mayor) of the powerful UlhasnagarMunicipal Council. In recent years, she too faced several charges of intimidation and forgery [cite news
title = Kalani's wife held for forgery
publisher = Cybernoon
url = http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=news&xfile=May2004_news_standard1211
date = May 28, 2004
accessdate = 2007-05-24] , and lost the 2007 municipal elections. His sonOmi Kalani has been named in several extortion and assault cases in 2005 [cite news
title = Case lodged against Pappu Kalani’s son
author =
publisher = Indian Express
url = http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=162804
date = 2005-12-26
accessdate = 2007-05-24] , and he also has a daughter Seema.

In 2004, his brother Narayan Kalani was arrested for three murders dating back to theinternecine gang warfare of 1990 [cite news
title = Pappu Kalani’s brother arrested
publisher = Times of India
url = http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/649491.cms
date = 30 Apr, 2004
accessdate = 2007-05-09] .

References