Signs of organised crime all around, but police won't say the U-word
Signs of organised crime all around, but police won't say the U-word
The city is fast becoming the new home of the underworld, a word long associated with Mumbai. The city's surging crime graph and investigations into organised crime links are pointing towards this unsettling trend.
The recent arrest of gangster Mohammad Saqib Shahnawaz Aalam Khan (23) in Delhi by the Mumbai Crime Branch spilled the beans on underworld activities going on in the city under the very nose of the police, something that has remained unacknowledged for long.
Khan, formerly of the Bharat Nepali gang and now associated with the Chhota Shakeel gang, reportedly confessed to having shot at Ajay Bhosale, a former corporator, during the election campaign in October in Koregaon Park.
Sophisticated arms
Khan's involvement in an act of organised crime is not an isolated case. The nvolvement of Chhota Rajan, Ravi Pujari and Ashwin Naik gangs was evident in crimes in the recent past in the city.
With the underworld, the use of sophisticated weapons in the city is also increasing, compelling the police to take the matter more seriously, said police sources.
To keep a check on organised crime, the Anti-Extortion Cell was recently expanded into two regions. An inspector-rank officer heads each region. This is besides the inspector who heads the cell. The move is a silent acknowledgement that the police are taking the underworld threat seriously.
Lure of land deals
Land deals, especially the ones that concern prominent locations, have been drawing the underworld's attention, but cases are not reported to the police unless a major crime related to it happens, said senior police officials on condition of anonymity.
Bhosale was fired upon after he got in the way of the underworld in a land deal at a prime location. Then, there is the case of builder Nikhil Rane, who was forced to pay a ransom to Sandeep Dicholkar, formerly associated with the Ashwin Naik gang.
SIMI connection?
Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) sources said investigations had revealed that SIMI activist Bilal Rasool Kagzi, a law graduate from the city arrested by the Gujarat police in the Ahmedabad blasts case, was reportedly in touch with Chhota Shakeel.
The sources added that slain don Feroz Khan alias Feroz Totla was the brother of SIMI activist Ayaz Khan, who was arrested from Bhimpura in a fake currency racket.
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