Salim the Disposable (Tracing the absconder Salim Kurla) continues...

Dawood and his elder brother Shabir, started as petty thieves in their teens and soon became minions and recovery agents of smugglers and extortionists. They began work for Karim Lala and his Pathan associates headed by Amirzada and Alamzeb. Dawood recovered Rs. 2 lakh from a Customs officer who had misappropriated a couple of gold slabs smuggled by the Pathan gang. However, Dawood gave only a small part of the recovered amount to Amirzada which led to bitter differences between the two. Dawood drew first blood by assaulting Saeed Batla, an Amirzada associate. The retaliation by Amirzada was swift and deadly. He had Dawood’s elder brother Shabir killed near a petrol pump in Prabhadevi in up-market Mumbai. Dawood was heart-broken at the irreparable loss of his brother who he idolized and loved dearly. Seething with vengeance, Dawood got Amirzada killed in court. Thus, began an unending gang-war between the Pathans and Dawood. But it was Dawood who emerged victorious at the end. (Please see more on this in the chapter on Abdul Latif titled ‘‘‘Aiyeessa Kya’’’ on page XYZ).

Dawood was now the uncrowned king of Mumbai underworld. The other dons like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala et al had aged, invested their ill-gotten wealth in legitimate businesses and retired to a comfortable life, free of worries of raids by the police and Customs departments. However, with numerous criminal cases pending against him and countless enemies baying for his blood, Dawood jumped bail and escaped to Dubai in 1984. He continued to run the affairs of his gang by remote, through a well-structured hierarchy of trusted lieutenants who lived in Bombay and its suburbs. His number two in the gang was his younger brother Anees Ibrahim, an impulsive, ill-tempered and abusive mobster who was in and out of Bombay.

well-organized crime syndicate with interests in smuggling of gold and silver, extortions, arbitration of disputes, hawala, contract killings, real estate, financing of films, betting in cricket etc. held sway over the crime scene of Mumbai.

To be continued...