Untold Story of Mumbai Underworld Karim Lala to Dawood! Girls, Crime, Cash, Glamour!

Mumbai is the city of dreams. From Glamour of Bollywood to the money and power of the Financial city, Mumbai has always a lot to offer. But Mumbai is also infamous for its brutal Underworld and gang rivalries in which the city has seen itself bathing in blood! These Gangs were ruled by the most notorious gangsters of India and they have always struggled for the supreme control and have even killed for Cash, power and girls!

So, here is the untold story of Mumbai Underworld that will tell you about the most notorious gangsters of the city.

Click next to see the first Don of Mumbai   

Karim Lala

Karim Lala was a Pathan who was born in Afganistan. He came to Mumbai in the 1930s and started his gang. He started off by settling disputes of other Pathan Gangs which were struggling for power control. He ran gambling dens and also ventured into smuggling gold, silver and electronics. He also ran drug and protection rackets.

He was, however, famous for his approach to handle problems with peaceful negotiations. Though he used to do contract killings but at the same time, he also settled divorce issues. On one occasion, Famous actress Helen sought his help to get her fees which were due for some years. He died in 2002.

Click next to see the Gangster who became Don after immigrating from Chennai 

Varadarajan Muniswami Mudaliar

Varadarajan Muniswami Mudaliar was born in Madras Presidency in 1926. He moved to Bombay in 1960s to work as a porter in Mumbai. He then started his crime life by distributing illicit liquor. He slowly started smuggling operations and then formed his own gang. He had a lot of disputes with the other gangs in the 1980s. He also ran a parallel judicial system within Tamil community where Tamils were in the majority.

He later ran into a lot of disputes with the Mumbai Police. He then retired and settled in Chennai. He died in 1988. The famous Tamil movie, film Nayagan was based on Varadarajan’s life. Actor Kamal Hassan played the lead role.

Click next to see the Gangster who never fired in his whole life 

Haji Mastan

Haji Mastan was born in Madras Presidency in the year 1926. He shifted to Mumbai as a child and worked in a repair shop and then worked as a porter. There we worked closely with Karim Lala and became an infamous smuggler and a very rich man. He was in love with the Bollywood films and financed many films.

He was known to resolve matters with peace. He brought the plan for gangsters in Mumbai to divide the area and rule peacefully. He was also famous for never shooting  a gun in his entire lifetime. He is also credited to be the first celebrity gangster of India. Bollywood movies ‘Once Upon a time in Mumbai’ and ‘Deewar’ is based on his life. He died in 1994.

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Dawood Ibrahim

Dawood Ibrahim is one of the most notorious gangsters of all time. He was born to a constable who worked with CID in Mumbai Police. Ibrahim, with his brother Shabir Ibrahim Kaskar, formed the D-Company. He was said to control hawala system of Money transfer in Mumbai.

He was famous for getting in feuds with other gangsters in Mumbai and ending the career and life of many noted gangsters. He became the most notorious gangster of India. He was later involved in Terrorist activities and was the principal orchestrator of the 1993 Mumbai Bomb Blast. He is believed to live in Pakistan and has close ties with ISI and al-Qaeda. He is currently on rank 3 in most wanted men in the world.

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Chota Rajan

Chota Rajan was born as Rajan Nikalaje and grew up in a middle-class locality in Tilak Nagar in Chembur.  He started his criminal career by scalping cinema tickets at Sahakar cinema in the 1980s. He was mentored by Bada Rajan and after he was killed, Chota Rajan took over the gang.

He worked with Dawood Ibrahim together. He was infamous for Murders, Smuggling and extorting money. He and Dawood fell out after the 1993 bomb blast and he became Dawood’s arch enemy. He then even tipped off R&AW about activities of D-Company which did serious damage to Dawood. Dawood tried to take his life by sending assassinators in Bangkok where Rajan could barely escape. He was later apprehended by Mumbai Police in 2015 in Indonesia.

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Bada Rajan

Bada Rajan was a south Indian-born as Rajan Nair and grew up in Tilak Nagar locality in Chembur. He was an underworld don in Mumbai. He was involved in crime from an early life and was nicknamed Bada Rajan. He along with Chota Rajan started as black marketing cinema tickets in the 1980s. He formed a gang and mentored Chota Rajan who was his subordinate.

He tied with various gang leaders from time to time and was involved in many gang wars. He was also hired by other gangs to protect their territories. He was involved in a gang war with gangster Yashwant Jhadav which became one of the bloodiest gangwars in Mumbai Underworld. He was later killed outside the Esplanade court by rival gangs.

Click next to see the Hindu Gangster who became a legend  

Manya Surve

Manya Surve was a student in the Kirti College but he was wrongly implicated in a murder and was sentenced to the  life imprisonment. He was enraged by this and escaped from jail. He was then denied entry in the Mumbai Underworld because he was not a muslim which enraged him further and he formed his own gang.

He became notorious for robberies that were similar to the plots of James Hadley Chase novels which he read in Jail. In two years, he became so influential that he was offered to kill the Brother of Dawood Ibrahim by Karim Lala gang and he did that successfully. With so much pressure on police to catch him, the first encounter team was formed to kill him in 1982. He was shot dead in an encounter few months later. He became a legend as no one before had done so much damage to D-Company.

Click next to see the Hindu Gangster who later became politician

Arun Gawli

Arun Gawli was born in 1955 and started his criminal activities in the Dagdi Chawl in Byculla, Mumbai. He ran a business of kidnapping people, torturing them, extorting money and then murdering them. Time and again his house and offices were raided by police and time and again he was arrested but could not be detained for long.

He was also famous for his feuds with Dawood and he time and again tried to kill him and damage his business but he had limited success. He entered Politics and became an MLA in 2004 but he could not exploit his power for long as he was convicted of murder in August 2012. He is currently in Jail.

Click next to see the gangster who gave Sanjay Dutt weapons

Abu Salem

Abu Salem was born in Uttar Pradesh and operated an STD booth in Mumbai and started his criminal activities from there. He soon rose to became a trusted aide of Dawood Ibrahim. In 1992, he supplied weapons to film actor Sanjay Dutt. He played an active role in March 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts which killed over 250 people.

He shifted to Dubai in 1993 and then started operating in India from Overseas. Salem is believed to have murdered music baron Gulshan Kumar on 12 August 1997 without Dawood’s consent. Fearing him, he fled to Dubai. He was also responsible for attacks on cine figures Rajiv Rai, Rakesh Roshan and Manmohan Shetty. He was arrested in Portugal and deported to India in 2004. He is in jail.

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