How Dagdi Chawl became Arun Gawli's den

Mumbairsquos most notorious residential pocket Dagdi Chawl home to underworld don Arun Gawli who used it as his crime den in the 1980s and rsquo90s will soon be a thing of the past The centuryold chawl in Byculla which comprises 10 buildings housing nearly 380 tenants is making way for two towers of 40 floors each as part of a redevelopment project The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority MHADA recently gave a green signal to the project finally bringing down the curtain on a locality with a fractured and violent historyDaughter Geeta Gawli who is a BMC corporator and wife AshaLong before Dagdi Chawl became Gawlirsquos fortress it served as a modest living arrangement for mill workers and their families The area only began experiencing unrest when the mill workersrsquo strike began in the early 1980s Itrsquos around this time that Arun Gawlirsquos tryst with the underworld beganSon of mill workers Gulab Gawli and Laxmibai Gawli was briefly employed at Shakti Mills Godrej and Crompton Greaves in the late rsquo70s At Crompton he met Sadashiv Pawle known as Sada Pawle who introduced him to Rama NaikAlso ReadMumbai lsquoParolersquo man Arun Gawli now out for wifersquos ear surgeryThe underworld was earlier divided on regional lines with Maharashtrians fighting against North Indian gangsters The rise of Dawood Ibrahim in the rsquo80s led Gawli to establish his mark as a ldquoHindu donrdquoGawli had already rubbed the D Company the wrong way when he declined to join their gold smuggling business With the threat to him and his men increasing in the area Dagdi Chawl became the headquarters of the BRA Babu Reshim Rama Naik and Arun Gawli gangBefore Dagdi Lalvitanchi Chawl in Byculla West was the centre of the crime world says an exencounter specialist who wished to remain anonymous ldquoRama Naik was the undisputed don in Central Mumbai The chawl housed many henchmen including Chota Rajan Arun Gawli too would visit the chawl and maybe thatrsquos when he got the idea of using his chawl as a fortress After the death of Rama Naik and Babu Reshim there was no strong man in the crime world to counter the D gang Thatrsquos when Arun Gawli took charge and made Dagdi Chawl his baserdquoPlace of many hideoutsGawlirsquos darbar which was held in the chawl saw people come in hordes seeking quick solutions to their problems Those with financial disputes real estate matters or even domestic haggles were ready to pay lsquofeesrsquo for their consultation with Gawli He earned the sobriquet of Daddy among his associatesFor several decades Dagdi Chawl served as a modest living arrangement for mill workers and their familiesDuring one such darbar in March 1983 Shridhar Shetty the owner of an Udipi hotel in Byculla allegedly abused Gawli Things turned ugly with Gawlirsquos gang brutally murdering him According to police officials this was the first incident when a murder took place inside the chawl premises In the following months Gawli tried to evade arrest but later surrendered to the policeAccording to the encounter specialist there was a hidden passage which connected the chawl to the adjacent Khatau Mills helping gangsters flee during the police raids ldquoAs the gang got bigger several cavities hidden stairs and hideouts were made within the chawlrdquo Even residents started shielding Gawlirsquos gang members Police sources say that there was a time when nearly 700 men worked for himCatching Gawli at his den was next to impossible Suresh Walishetty who was then posted as senior inspector of Crime Branch Unit 2 has narrated the incident of his first arrest in his book Mi Suresh WalishettyHe recounts how on July 20 1990 around 60 officers were taken to Dagdi Chawl ldquoExcept for our boss Arvind Inamdar and a few seniors nobody knew what we were up toInamdar saheb had set a bandobast of the State Reserve Police Force around the chawlrdquo he writesldquoWhen we entered the chawl everyone was looking at us I entered Gawlirsquos house but his wife told us he was not at homehellip We kept searching for hours but couldnrsquot find him The raiding cops had begun feeling embarrassed Some were speaking of returning I was inside a room where a sofa was kept I noticed it move I immediately told my subordinate to check the sofa He removed the mattress and plywood and we found Gawli trying hard to fit insiderdquoFrom crime den to political HQAs the Bombay Police started coming down heavily on gangs in the 1990s activities in the chawl slowly began losing pace Gradually the chawl made room for a charitable clinic akhada a gym and a gaushala cow shed As Gawlirsquos clout grew Navratri festival came to be celebrated in a big way Several gang members builders and local representatives would pay visits during these festivals The iron gates were closed all the time Any guest would be thoroughly searched before being taken to GawliThe Navrati Ustav a tradition started by GawliShiv Sena chief Bal Thackerayrsquos mention of Gawli and other Marathi dons as ldquoamchi mulyerdquo our kids meant that the don also enjoyed political support However in 1997 after a fall out with the party Gawli launched his own party Akhil Bhartiya SenaThat same year Gawlirsquos trusted aides Sada Pawle and Vijay Tandel were eliminated by encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar in GhatkoparThe don now started focusing his energies on making it big as a politician In 2002 Sunil Ghate an ABS candidate got elected as BMC corporator The electoral success changed the fortunes of the chawl Soon after in the 2004 Assembly elections Gawli was elected as MLA from the Chinchpokli constituency His daughter Geeta too got elected as corporator in the BMCGawlirsquos terror reign came to an end when he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar in 2007 Gawli is currently out on a 45day parole for his wifersquos surgerySpeaking with midday Gawlirsquos wife Asha said she has fond memories of growing up here ldquoI came to stay in Dagdi Chawl when I was around nine years old My grandmother used to live here I got married and gave birth to my kids in this place Like the rest of Mumbai this area has also seen a lot of changes When Daddy realised the chawl would be demolished even he felt bad But it had to happenrdquoHis corporator daughter Geeta says ldquoAny person who has lived in the chawl will miss its lifestyle But we will make sure that the ground which hosts the Navratri Utsav will be preserved even after redevelopment We want to continue that traditionrdquo