Authors: S. Hussain Zaidi
Papa’s killing paralysed the gang and its ringleader. Gawli was plagued by guilt, holding himself responsible for his brother’s death and the deaths of those near to him, which lingered in his mourning.
Seizing the opportunity afforded by this lull, Dawood launched a full-scale attack against the Gawli gang. Gawli’s top aides like Paul Newman were killed. Then Sunil Sawant stormed the Kanjur village with an AK-47 and killed six of Gawli’s men in one single siege.
Gawli’s silence and reclusion hit his gang hard. The morale of the gang plummeted, hitting the lowest point since its inception. At last, Gawli’s men decided to retaliate and planned to eliminate someone who was not only considered close to Dawood, but was also regarded as a big hit for the gang.
The name suggested was that of Ibrahim Parkar. Parkar was Dawood’s sister Hasina’s husband. Of all his sisters, Dawood was closest to her.
Ismail Ibrahim Parkar was the victim of the age-old adage—an eye for an eye. Parkar was chosen as his target.
Parkar, a junior film artist, also owned the Qadri hotel in Arab gully, Nagpada. On 26 July 1992, he was sitting at the cash register, going over the accounts and keeping an eye out for any young wannabe bhai who might think of causing trouble at the hotel. Men would drop in and talk to him at regular intervals and would be served tea while they discussed their business disputes. Parkar would listen carefully, ask questions, and try to settle their disputes.
Parkar stepped out of the hotel late in the afternoon, accompanied by his driver Salim Patel. He was standing outside the hotel when four men walked up to him rapidly. The men drew guns from under their shirts as they approached, fired at Parkar and Patel rapidly, and ran away.
Parkar collapsed amidst screams of alarm and cries for help from Patel. He was dead by the time he reached St George hospital, having succumbed to multiple injuries to his vital organs. News of his murder first reached his wife Hasina, and then her brother Dawood, who was in Dubai. Listening with boiling blood to the news on the phone, he issued orders that none of his men were to rest till the killers were hunted down.
The four shooters were identified as Shailesh Haldankar, Bipin Shere, Raju Batala, and Santosh Patil. A month later, Haldankar and Shere shot a Nagpada businessman dead and fled the scene. However, they made the mistake of returning to the area two days later, were recognised, and caught by residents of the area. They were arrested but were admitted to the JJ Hospital, due to the injuries they sustained while being beaten by the residents.
It took almost two years for Gawli to fully rally and retaliate, but they eventually affected a massive onslaught on Dawood’s gang. It was now time for Dawood and his gang members to mourn. A pall of gloom had descended not only on the streets of Nagpada and Dongri but also extended to Dawood’s hometown of Mumka in Ratnagiri and his headquarters in Dubai.
Parkar’s killing brought the non-stop violence and bloodshed to a melancholy halt. But this hard-won peace was to prove transient.
5
Shootout at Lokhandwala
I
t was the morning of 16 November 1991. The Police Shield matches were in progress at the Hindu Gymkhana; the Police Gymkhana had not yet been built. S. Ramamurthy, the commissioner of Mumbai police, walked into the viewing stand. The officers clicked their heels together swiftly upon his approach. But he seemed to barely notice, appearing preoccupied. A chair was offered and he took a seat, still looking perturbed. Ramamurthy knew he did not have very long to prove himself. There were already whispers among the top cop circles that the bureaucracy was looking for his successor. Gang wars were at their peak, crime in the city was rising unbridled, and the Mumbai police was going through a rather embarrassing phase as a result. The weight of these concerns plagued Ramamurthy this morning.
Sub-inspector Iqbal Sheikh walked into the viewing gallery and saw Ramamurthy sitting there. He needed a word with him. Iqbal Sheikh, stocky, short, brawny-looking, was an authority on the Mumbai underworld at that time. He was known to have penetrated several mafia circles and had a considerable information network. When Ramamurthy rose to leave, he walked to his side and saluted him stiffly, saying as he accompanied him out, ‘Sir,
aaj ek major operation hai
[Sir, there is a major operation today].’ Ramamurthy looked at Sheikh, his face betraying a perceptible apprehensiveness. He opened his mouth to say something. Then he changed his mind and sped off in his car.
Sheikh turned on his heels and re-entered the gymkhana. His friend Atul Choudhary, captain of the Hindu Gymkhana team, looked at him and gestured to ask where he was going. Sheikh raised his forefinger and index finger, as if shooting an invisible bullet. Choudhury nodded and raised his thumb at Sheikh for good luck. Iqbal Sheikh collected his belongings and left. It was 10:45 am, and he was on his way to Lokhandwala, Andheri.
On Carter Road in Bandra, at the office of A.A. Khan, additional commissioner of police, north region, the members of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) were getting ready to leave. Inspectors M.A. Qavi, Pramod Rane, Ambadas Pote; sub-inspectors Jhunjharrao Gharal, Sunil Deshmukh, Jagdale, Iqbal Sheikh, Raja Mandge, and seven constables of the Local Arms Division prepared for what was to come. The ATS was a special squad that had been set up at Khan’s insistence. In those days, the main role of the ATS was to fight the menace of the Khalistani terrorists and underworld gangsters; today, their ambit is far wider, including counter-intelligence measures against all kinds of terrorism as well as gathering and using intelligence.
A constable was dispatched to the storeroom to bring out the bulletproof vests. The constable came back reporting,
‘Saheb, tala laga hai. Chabiwala constable aaya nahi.
[It’s locked. The constable who has the key hasn’t come in today.]’ One of the inspectors commanded the man to break the lock and get the crucial vests. At last they found, five bulletproof vests for eight officers. When the vests were being distributed, Iqbal Sheikh said he would not need one, and upon hearing this, Gharal said, ‘
Mujhe bhi nahi chahiye
[I don’t want one either].’ With arms and ammunition collected, they prepared to set off. ‘
Chalo chalte hain Andheri Lokhandwala. Telephone number mil gaya hai
! [Come on, let’s go to Andheri Lokhandwala. We’ve found the telephone number],’ said Inspector Pramod Rane, as they charged out towards Andheri. It was 11:30 am.
The policemen had got a tip-off that Dilip Buwa, a ferocious sharpshooter of the Dawood Ibrahim gang directly under the command of Maya Dolas, there. Their team stopped at the RTO junction at Andheri and sent out a party consisting of Qavi, Rane, Pote, and Sunil Deshmukh and Iqbal Sheikh for a recce. The team arrived at the Apna Ghar complex in Swami Samarth Nagar, Lokhandwala, Andheri. The Apna Ghar complex consisted of four buildings: Rohini, Swati, Aditi, and Ashwini. Swati stood in the northwestern corner of the compound and had two wings, A & B. Flat number 5 was on the ground floor of the A wing. The policemen closed in.
Outside the flat sat two white Maruti Esteems. It was a well-known fact that Dilip Buwa drove a white Maruti Esteem. He was, in these days, so wanted by the police that he always left the keys in the ignition—just in case he needed to make a quick getaway.
The recce team surveyed the surroundings and returned to the rest of the team. Inspector Qavi drew a map of the area to work with. Flat number 5 was the only flat in the entire complex with two exits, so the police team decided to split up. The northern exit opened out near the staircase and the southern exit into the compound. One team, consisting of Qavi, Gharal, and Deshmukh, would enter through the southern entrance and the other team, consisting of Rane, Mandge, and Sheikh, would enter through the northern entrance. The remaining constables and officers were stationed in the compound.
Everyone in position, Qavi stormed through the door with his team. On the other side, Sheikh was standing with his ear to the door. At first, he heard what he later discovered were the dialogues of the Amitabh Bachchan starrer
Akela
playing, and then he heard gunfire. Rapid gunfire! The action had begun. Qavi had entered the house with Gharal and Deshmukh. Dilip Buwa was sitting on a chair with a revolver on the table next to him. As soon as he saw the trio, he picked up his weapon and began to fire. As they were not in uniform, and he mistook them for members of a rival gang. In the first round, Gharal was hit in the chest and as he was not wearing a bulletproof vest, he collapsed and began to bleed profusely. Qavi was injured in the arm but protected from graver injuries by his vest. Only Deshmukh and Qavi managed to return fire and began to withdraw, pulling Gharal to safety.
Outside, all wireless units were whipped out and news of the exchange of fire was conveyed. Never before had gangsters shot at the police to wilfully kill them. This was a first and it was an unbearable insult. Within minutes news of the injured cops spread like wildfire and several units of police from all over the city began to descend upon Lokhandwala, swearing the gangsters would not walk out alive from here. It was 1:30 pm.
By 1:15 pm, reinforcements were put in place and the complex was transformed into a fortress. All activity had ceased and people were cowering in their houses. But the police were being cautious, with two of their number already injured, they were not going to take any chances.
One crucial observation had been made by Qavi’s team, in the meanwhile. They had seen Mahindra alias Maya Dolas in Buwa’s flat. This was now a whole new ball game. Maya Dolas, once a small-time hoodlum, had shot to public attention when he escaped from judicial custody on 14 August earlier that year. He had attacked a constable and run away from Mazgaon court, and this was not a slight the police were going to forget in a hurry. Subsequently, he shot at Ashok Joshi, a member of Arun Gawli’s gang, at a Ganpati pandal in Bhandup. This shootout had left five innocent bystanders dead. Lately, reports of his increasing closeness to Dawood Ibrahim had been trickling in. The police had come in looking for Buwa— Dolas was an added bonus. Additionally, they had spotted other gangsters, Gopal Pujari, Anil Khubchandani, Anil Pawar, and Raju Nadkarni, and one unidentified man inside the house. It was time to take action.
The police took their positions in the building compound, united in a full show of strength. Khan announced the necessity of surrender to the gangsters under siege, using a loudspeaker. In the meantime, Dilip Buwa, accompanied by an unknown man, emerged from the southern entrance and headed towards his Esteem, firing indiscriminately, in a bid to escape. But there were far too many cops around for them to take on. When the police returned fire, it came from so many directions that Buwa and the unknown man were reduced to a couple of bullet-ridden bodies. They collapsed a few metres from the front door and died on the spot. Now, there remained Maya Dolas and his henchmen. It was 1: 40 pm.
The action now moved to the terrace, which connected the two wings of the building. One unit of the police reached the terrace of the A-wing through the B-wing. They wanted to ensure that no civilians were taken as hostages. No sooner did they reach the terrace than they heard Gopal Pujari and Raju Nadkarni rushing up the staircase. The team swooped down on the two gangsters. Raju Nadkarni was shot down on the second floor and Gopal Pujari on the first. Now Dolas and Pawar remained. Anil Khubchandani could not be seen anywhere.
Khan continued to demand surrender, all this while; there was no way these men could hope to escape alive. But finally, when Dolas and Pawar emerged from the exit near the staircase, they too appeared not in surrender, but rather with their AK-47 rifles. The police immediately opened fire. They could not afford more casualties. In a hail of bullets, Dolas and Pawar were seen going down. For a long time after they were dead, the sound of the bullets could be heard resounding through the compound. It was 4:30 pm.
The police stormed flat number 5, and found the flat in shambles, pockmarked with bullets. The TV screen was shattered, and nearby lay Anil Khubchandani, dead in a pool of bullet casings and blood. A framed picture of Sai Baba lay shattered, even the guru’s image pierced by a bullet through his forehead. It had been a four-and-half-hour-long encounter and over 2,500 rounds had been fired. It had not been an encounter; it had been a war, a war where every shot was fired to kill. It was a warning, an open threat, and a death knell for the underworld stating in no uncertain terms that the blood of no policeman would flow at the hands of a gangster.
Subsequently Gharal, who had been rushed to the Hinduja Hospital in Khan’s car, survived his injuries. Qavi also healed and continued to serve his entire term. A formal complaint was lodged at the D.N. Nagar Police Station by Sub-inspector Sunil Deshmukh. The complaint accused the deceased of unlawful assembly, attempting to commit murder of police officers and men by means of dangerous weapons, and deterring public servants from discharging their legal duties. The unknown man at the flat was later identified as Vijay Chakor, a 28-year-old constable from the Yerawada prison in Pune. It was never established what he was doing with the gangsters. However, it was alleged that he was a messenger for some gangster lodged in the Yerawada prison at the time. The matter was never conclusively investigated.
All the officers were recommended for gallantry awards. However, the awards never came. On that fateful day, a team from a news channel called Newstrack had recorded the entire incident. Questions about the veracity of the encounter and the genuineness of the threat from the gangsters were raised and the entire team was embroiled in a controversy, which later culminated into a petition filed by a social activist Vinod Mehta at the Bombay High Court. The court promptly dismissed this petition.