January 1, 1955 - Arun Gawli
Over several decades, Gawli rose from street-level criminal affiliations in central Mumbai to become one of the city's most prominent underworld figures, eventually transitioning into electoral politics while still facing serious criminal charges. His trajectory — from the Byculla Company's gang networks to a seat in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly — reflects the particular ways organized crime and democratic politics became entangled in urban India during the late twentieth century.
From Wikipedia
Arun Gulab Gawli (born 17 July 1955), also known as Arun Gulab Ahir, is an Indian politician, underworld don and retired gangster. Gawli and his brother Kishor (Pappa) entered the Mumbai underworld in the 1970s, when they joined the "Byculla Company", a criminal gang led by Rama Naik and Babu Reshim, operating in the central Mumbai areas of Byculla, Parel and Saat Rasta. In 1988, after Rama Naik was killed in a police encounter, Gawli took over the gang and began operating it from his residence, Dagdi Chawl. Under his control, the gang controlled most criminal activities in the central Mumbai areas. Throughout the late eighties and nineties, Gawli's gang was involved in a power struggle with Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company gang. Gawli is also the founder of the Akhil Bharatiya Sena political party based in Maharashtra.
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