Sunday Snippets
By Venkatesh Raghavan
If there was one don that eluded granting me a personal audience despite repeated attempts on my part, it was the elusive Amar Naik, popularly called Ravan in Bombay’s crime circles. He, however, kept sending me feelers through his trusted lieutenants who helped me gain insight into his style of functioning and how he escaped detection from the law-enforcing authorities despite remaining within Bombay soils.
Near the Police Commissioner’s office, I got to meet a close aide of his who threw light on Amar’s style of functioning. He said, “Wherever the don went, he always used to park himself right under the nose of the policemen’s scrutiny. For instance, if Amar decided to stay in neighbouring Pune, he would stay at a location that was a stone’s throw from the police commissioner’s office. No one would ever suspect his presence in the vicinity.”
Also read: Sunday Snippets: Sources of a crime reporter
Another clue given to me by his aide was that, unlike other dons, Amar did not have any vices. Owing to this, it was difficult for any police team to entrap and eliminate him in an encounter. In the absence of regular haunts like the local paanwala or cigarette vendor’s shop or say beer bar, the police found it very tough to pin him down.
As I kept tracking down the roots of the don, it took me to vendors from the vegetable and fruit markets in Dadar, who gave me the dope on Amar’s earlier days. I got to hear the saga about his gang members hanging out at 144 Tenements in Central Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi area, located opposite Bombay’s Arthur Road jail. They also provided an interesting anecdote about the don’s right-hand man, when it came to recruitments. His name was Dashrath Rahane. The modus operandi used by Rahane to recruit (catch them young type) sounded almost like what usually transpires in corporate poaching.
Rahane used to catch hold of young unemployed youth in the locality. He used to treat them with food, and booze and in addition, supply their requirements based on whatever vices they preferred to indulge in. Subsequently, after the youth got adequately cultivated, Rahane used to tell the gang members crowding around him in the presence of the youth, “You folks have to go and stab so and so person walking ahead of you.” He would then tell the youth, “You just stay behind and watch.” The youth in his eagerness to show his loyalty would go ahead of the rest and inflict the stabbing.
Rahane would then help the youth to stay in hiding for a short span of a week or so. Then he would tell the youth, “Go and surrender to this particular police station. Our men will take care of you once you are in custody. Our lawyer will ensure that your bail gets processed.” With this act, the youth got officially enlisted in Amar’s gang.
Even as Amar’s gang started expanding and the don diversified from collecting protection money in the Dadar market and adjoining areas into the narcotic trade, Dasharath Rahane, his right-hand man got eliminated in a shootout that occurred while he was returning from a marriage ceremony. Amar however, had already expanded his horizons and his name struck terror in the hearts of many a local businessman who came under the gang’s scanner.
It also was cited that one of the reasons why it was difficult to track down the don was that very few of the policemen in the ’90s era had any personal or face to face situation that could have helped them positively identify Amar Naik. Amar’s long uninterrupted stint of terror and narco trade in the city came to an abrupt end with his getting gunned down in the jurisdiction of Nagpada police station during the early hours of July 10, 1996. It was reported unofficially that a lady clad in white was the one to fire the first bullet at Amar. However, to this day the chapter stays closed.
