It is almost a decade since trendsetting ganglord Chhota Rajan's right-hand-man D K Rao was on the streets of Mumbai. And now, he is back.

I still remember Rao being escorted to the Crime Branch after the infamous encounters on November 11, 1998.

Crime branch officials were wheeling the bodies of five gangsters apparently killed in an encounter to the morgue at KEM hospital when they got a shock. Suddenly, one of the 'bodies' rose from the dead and yelled, 'main zinda hoon!' (I am alive!).

The injured gangster was immediately whisked away to one of the wards secretly. Born Ravi Mallesh Bora, D K Rao, who also went by the alias Akaash, spent the next ten years in jail until his release last week.

Rao is perhaps the only gangster who survived three encounters with the police. The earlier occassions were in 1987 in Khar and in 1991 in Andheri.
Rao has come a long way from being a robber or chindi to being one of Rajan's key lieutenants to operate from the jails for over a decade.
Even today, dozens of robbers or chindis (an underworld term for people who are climbers) are being recruited by the gang through Rao.
Contract killing is taken up by these robbers as an alternative profession for a very good reasonu2014they need an influential don to arrange for the bail and provide them with jobs on their release. Rao became the main link between the don and the recruits.