Mumbai Police Detection Unit

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Detection Unit consisted of several high-profile officers of Mumbai Police. [1] The squad primarily dealt with members of the Mumbai underworld and other criminal gangs.

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Gang wars in Mumbai

The Unit came to be known as the "Encounter Squad" because of its involvement in the encounter killings. It came into prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, when they started dealing with Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company gang, the Arun Gawali gang and the Amar Naik gang.

The 'encounter’, was a euphemism for a situation in which a gangster was cornered, asked to surrender, ostensibly attacked the police or tried to escape, and was shot dead in retaliatory action. As the encounters increased, so did the popularity of the "encounter specialist." Daya Nayak, Valentine D'Souza, Pradeep Sharma, Ravindranath Angre, Praful Bhosale, Raju Pillai, Vijay Salaskar, Shivaji Kolekar, Sachin Vaze and Sanjay Kadam became cult figures, mythologised by the media. [2]

The first encounter occurred on 11 January 1982 when gangster Manya Surve was shot dead by police officers Raja Tambat and Isaque Bagwan at the Wadala area. [3] The famous killing of Maya Dolas in the 1991 Lokhandwala Complex shootout bought focus on this unit for first time. More than 400 [4] criminals from different gangs were killed by this squad.

Since the cracking of the 1993 Mumbai Bomb blasts case, the squad played an instrumental role in controlling the Dawood Ibrahim, Chota Rajan, Ashwin Naik, Ravi Pujari, Ejaz Lakdawala, Ali Budesh, and Arun Gawli gangs in Mumbai. [5] [6] [7]

The squad was dissolved after rival dons Dawood and Chota Rajan fled India, but revived after the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings. Then after 2006 some mysterious hit groups led by an unknown youth from south India ruled with local, national as well as international support continued until the end of 2009. Then they just vanished even as per the police records. [8]

The end of the squad came with the departure of Vaze and Nayak from service, and death of Vijay Salaskar, [9] killed in a gun battle at Rangbhavan Lane during Mumbai 26/11 Terrorist attack.

Related Research Articles

D-Company is a name coined by the Indian media for one of Mumbai underworld's Organized crime syndicate founded and controlled by Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian crime boss, drug dealer and wanted terrorist. In 2011, Ibrahim, along with his D-Company, was number three on the FBI's "The World's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives" list.

Encounter killing is a term used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka since the late 20th century to describe extrajudicial killings by the police or the armed forces, supposedly in self-defence when they encounter suspected gangsters or terrorists. The incidents are typically described by the officers as a shootout situation. Sometimes policemen are also killed by criminals in encounters.

Organised crime in India refers to organised crime elements originating in India and active in many parts of the world. The purpose of organised crime in India, as elsewhere in the world, is monetary gain. Its virulent form in modern times is due to several socio-economic and political factors and advances in science and technology. There is no firm data to indicate the number of organised criminal gangs operating in the country, their membership, their modus operandi and the areas of their operations. Their structure and leadership patterns may not strictly fall in line with the classical Italian mafia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chhota Rajan</span> Indian gangster

Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, popularly known by his moniker Chhota Rajan, is an Indian gangster who served as the boss of a major crime syndicate based in Mumbai.

Lokhandwala Complex, also known as Lokhandwala, is a large upmarket and affluent residential and commercial neighbourhood in Andheri West suburb in Mumbai, India. It is approximately 5 km from Andheri station. The name Lokhandwala comes from the name of the developer with the construction firm being Lokhandwala Constructions Pvt. Ltd. It was the primary developer of the suburb of Versova, which was previously basically a marshland. It is the starting point of Line 6 of the city's metro system.

<i>Shootout at Lokhandwala</i> 2007 Indian film directed by Apoorva Lakhia

Shootout at Lokhandwala is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed and co-written by Apoorva Lakhia and co-written and co-produced by Sanjay Gupta, with Ekta Kapoor serving as producer and Suresh Nair serving as writer. Based on the 1991 Lokhandwala Complex shootout, a real-life gun battle between gangsters and the Bombay Police, it stars Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi, Arbaaz Khan, Tusshar Kapoor, Rohit Roy, Aditya Lakhia, Shabbir Ahluwalia, and Amitabh Bachchan in pivotal roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apoorva Lakhia</span> Indian film director

Apoorva Lakhia is an Indian film director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pradeep Sharma</span> Police Officer

Pradeep Sharma is a former officer in the police force of Mumbai, India. Sharma attained notability as an "encounter specialist" with the Mumbai Encounter Squad and was involved with the deaths of as many as 312 criminals. On 31 August 2008 he was dismissed from the Mumbai police on charges of corruption but was reinstated on 16 August 2017 after he was proven innocent of those charges. Sharma resigned from Mumbai police in July 2019 after a 35 year long career. He officially joined the ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra on September 13, 2019 and contested from Nalasopara seat in the Maharashtra assembly polls but lost to Bahujan Vikash Aghadi's candidate Kshitij Hitendra Thakur by a margin of 43,729 votes.

Aftab Ahmed Khan was an Indian police officer (IPS)-turned-politician from Mumbai, noted for his encounter killings of gangsters from the Mumbai organized crime syndicates. He is also known as the founder of Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maya Dolas</span> Indian criminal

Maya Dolas was an Indian underworld gangster who used to work for the D-Company don, Dawood Ibrahim. He was killed in an encounter at the 1991 Lokhandwala Complex shootout by the then Additional Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Aftab Ahmed Khan, at the age of 25.

Gopal Rajwani was a criminal-politician with the Shiv Sena party, from Ulhasnagar, Maharashtra. Formerly associated with the ganglord Dawood Ibrahim, he joined the Shiv Sena in 1996. He was killed when he was appearing in a court case at Ulhasnagar in January 2000.

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Dilip Buwa was a notorious Indian gangster who used to work for the D-Company, an international crime syndicate of the Mumbai underworld led by Dawood Ibrahim. He was one of the men who were killed in 1991 by an encounter during the Lokhandwala Complex shootout. Buwa was killed by then Additional Police Commissioner of Mumbai, A. A. Khan.

The 1991 Lokhandwala Complex shootout was a gunbattle that occurred on 16 November 1991 at the Lokhandwala Complex, Bombay, between seven gangsters led by Maya Dolas and members of the Mumbai Police and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) led by the then Additional Commissioner of Police, A. A. Khan. The four-hour-long shootout was termed as India's "first daylight encounter" and was videographed and conducted in full view of the public. It ended in the deaths of all seven gangsters, including Maya Dolas, Dilip Buwa and Anil Pawar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manya Surve</span> Indian criminal

Manohar Arjun Surve, popularly known as Manya Surve, was an Indian Underworld Don in Bombay. He was one of the educated gangsters who graduated from college and very well known for challenging and defeating existing Gangs.

Dawood Ibrahim ( is an Indian mafia gangster, drug kingpin, and a wanted terrorist from Dongri, Mumbai. He reportedly heads the Indian organised crime syndicate D-Company, which he founded in Mumbai in the 1970s. Ibrahim is wanted on charges including murder, extortion, targeted killing, drug trafficking, and terrorism.

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Shabir Ibrahim Kaskar was notorious Indian criminal based in Mumbai. He was the elder brother of Dawood Ibrahim, the current gang leader of the D-Company. The risen of Shabir and Dawood in Mumbai's underworld and the sympathetic attitude of the Mumbai police toward them evoked the jealous and resentment of other established gang member from the Pathan gang that dominat South Mumbai area. Final, the inter-gang rivalry grew to such an extent that Manya Surve, his gang and Amirzada and Alamzeb plotted to kill Shabir and Dawood. On 12 February 1981, they gunned Shabir down at petrol pump in Prhadevi.

<i>Byculla to Bangkok</i> 2014 nonfiction book by S. Hussain Zaidi

Byculla to Bangkok is the second non-fiction book on organised crime and terror in the modern-day Indian metropolitan city of Mumbai written by S. Hussain Zaidi. It was first published by HarperCollins in February 2014. The book is a sequel to Dongri to Dubai. Hussain completed the story that was left unfinished in his earlier book by including the story of the "local lads" of the infamous mobster Dawood Ibrahim. The book deals primarily with three of the mobsters of Mumbai: Chota Rajan, Arun Gawli and Ashwin Naik. The film adaptation is owned by Ram Gopal Varma and Red Chillies Entertainment.

<i>Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia</i> Non-fiction book by Hussain Zaidi

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References

  1. Mumbai's infamous police 'encounter squad' dream of comeback - The Guardian, Sunday 6 March 2011
  2. Final Encounter
  3. City’s first encounter ended two years of urban dacoity [ permanent dead link ] - 22 June 2002, Express India
  4. "India can't keep a good don under". Asian times. 23 June 2007. Archived from the original on 26 June 2007. Retrieved 23 June 2007.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. ALEX PERRY (6 January 2003). "Urban Cowboys". TIME CNN. Archived from the original on 2 February 2008. Retrieved on 9 June 2007
  6. Zubair Ahmed (9 June 2004). "Bombay's crack Encounter Police". BBC News. Retrieved on 9 June 2007
  7. Indian Express (11 December 2001). "Where Gangsters blinked first". in.news.yahoo. Retrieved on 9 June 2007
  8. "Mumbai’s ‘Dirty Harrys’ are back in action" Archived 2012-07-11 at archive.today
  9. "Rajan Gangster dead". The Times of India . 31 October 2007. Archived from the original on 22 October 2012. Retrieved on 31 October 2007
  10. "BIG B TO STAR IN RGV'S COP FILM - HINDUSTAN TIMES" Archived 2011-10-02 at the Wayback Machine