""Ayeessa Kya?" (Is it So?)" continues...

After a couple of years, having been accused of pilferage of money, Latif left Ali’s gambling-den in acrimony and bitterness.

He then drifted into the trade of illicit liquor and joined a gang of liquor smugglers. Gujarat was—as it continues to be even today—a state under prohibition, where illicit demand of alcohol had given rise to liquor mafias. Illicit liquor was brought from different parts of neighboring state Rajasthan and sold at a premium. The trade required a vast and intricate chain of suppliers, transporters, distributors, retailers and the support of corrupt excise and police officers, as well as their political masters.

Latif cut his teeth in organized crime, grasping its basic ingredients of running a hierarchy of criminals, with every level of operatives playing its allotted role, maintaining utmost secrecy and fair distribution of the loot amongst gang members. The glue that bound them was the illicit gain they made regularly
on account of the illicit demand that existed and the fear of severe retribution if they broke the omerta. Latif was to rise quickly in the world of organized crime, given his penchant for violence and blood-shed. He was soon to head an elaborate gang of his own. Several cases of murder, kidnapping for ransom and extortion were registered against him in different Police Stations of Gujarat. His ruthlessness and dare-devilry were to make him a gangster difficult to pursue and apprehend.

Latif’s brush with the Bombay underworld took place first when he was introduced to Amin Khan Nawab Khan, Alam Khan Jangrez Khan of the Pathan gang of Bombay by one Ramzan of Viramgam, Gujarat. The Pathans disclosed that following a quarrel over a consignment of gold with Dawood Ibrahim gang, Shabir Ibrahim, Dawood’s elder brother, was killed by them in Bombay. Ever since then, the Pathans had been on the run. Latif gave them shelter in Ahmedabad and, unwittingly, became aligned with the Pathan gang headed by two brothers Alamzeb and Amirzada.

To be continued...