Thursday, June 13, 2019

Organised Underworld Crime in India


The Bombay underworld, refers to the organized crime network in the city of Mumbai(formerly Bombay). Over a period of time, the Mumbai underworld has been dominated by several different groups and mobsters.



The powerful trio of Haji Mastan, Varadarajan Mudaliar, and Karim Lala enjoyed backing from their communities from 1940 to 1980’s. Vardha Bhai controlled the criminal operations in the east and north-central Bombay. Karim Lala commanded south and central Bombay, and the majority of smuggling and illegal construction financing was Haji Mastan's domain.



D-Company is the organised crime group controlled by Dawood Ibrahim, which originated in Mumbai around 1980’s. It has been argued that the D-Company is not a stereotypical organised crime cartel in the strict sense of the word, but rather a collusion of criminal and Islamic terrorist groups based around Ibrahim's personal control and leadership. Ibrahim is currently on Interpol's wanted list for cheating, criminal conspiracy, and running an organised crime syndicate; and he was number two on The World's 10 Most Wanted list.



Chotta Rajan is the boss of a major crime syndicate based in Mumbai. He was a former key aide and lieutenant of Dawood Ibrahim. Starting as a petty thief and bootlegger working for Rajan Nair, also known as Bada Rajan (Big Rajan), Chhota Rajan took over the reins of Bada Rajan's gang after Bada Rajan's murder. Chhota Rajan was arrested in Bali by Indonesian police on 25 October 2015.



Arun Gawli's gang is based at Dagdi Chawl in Byculla, Mumbai. He started his criminal activities there and used the rooms there for keeping kidnapped persons, torturing them, extorting money from them and murdering them. He was finally convicted for the murder of Shiv Sena leader Kamalakar Jamsandekar by a court in August 2012.



Organised crime can also be seen in several other Indian cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mangalore, Calcutta, and most notably in Vadodara with NRI (Non Resident of India) organized crime committed by people of Indian background. It has been noted on multiple occasions that foreign influence on organized crime in India plays a critical role in how mafias and dons take action. It is speculated an NRI of Indian descent plays a critical role in mob activities in Vadodara and Mumbai, specifically in areas of Mumbai such as Zaveri Bazaar, Dadar, Nariman Point and more affluent areas such as Andheri, and Bandra.



Several local Indian, Russian, Israeli and Nigerian mafia groups are heavily involved in the organized drug trade in Goa, India's smallest state. Punjabi mafia refers to the organized criminal gangs in the state of Punjab in India. There has been a spurt in the formation and activities of such criminal gangs in Punjab over the last decade even though some gangs, associated with those based in Uttar Pradesh, have been operational in the state since the end of militancy in Punjab. A major form of Indian Punjabi organised crime are also the foreign-based, Indo-Canadian organised crime. These criminal organizations are mainly active in the province of British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario.



India is a major transit point for heroin from the Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent en route to Europe. India is also the world's largest legal grower of opium; experts estimate that 5–10% of the legal opium is converted into illegal heroin, and 8–10% is consumed in high quantities as concentrated liquid. The pharmaceutical industry is also responsible for a lot of illegal production of mandrax, much of which is smuggled into South Africa. Diamond smuggling via South Africa is also a major criminal activity, and diamonds are sometimes used to disguise shipments of heroin. Finally, a lot of money laundering takes place in the country, mostly through the use of the traditional hawala system, although India has criminalised money laundering as of 2003.



Hope the new government is able to put this in check.

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