AS Bollywood tries to come to terms with the murder of Gulshan Kumar, a murky underworld chain linking Dubai, Mumbai and the sleepy eastern Uttar Pradesh town of Azamgarh is fast becoming clear. While the henchmen of Dawood Ibrahim operating out of Dubai or Chotta Rajan's remote control operations from Malaysia spread terror in tinsel town, the police suspect that their Mumbai operations are often executed by hired killers from UP.
And Azamgarh district is the headquarters of the gangster-land of eastern UP. Consider this: an average of one murder every third day; routine daylight shootouts between organised criminals; a confirmed history-sheeter gangster as its MP; many small and big-time gangs armed with AK-47s and G-3s led by political criminals and criminal politicians; a flourishing hawala business. And to cap it all, Dawood's trusted lieutenant, Abu Salem aka Big Brother, hails from Sarai Mir village near Azamgarh. Though thousands of miles from Mumbai, Azamgarh enjoys a very prominent position on the city's underworld map.
Surprisingly, despite Abu Salem's notoriety, the local police appear pretty ignorant about him. Says Hari Shankar Shukla, SSP, Azamgarh: "I've heard this name from you only. This man has not committed any crime in our area, so we have no dossier on him." Even people in Sarai Mir police station pretend they have heard Salem's name for the first time from you. But in local underworld circles he is a known man. Shukla does not deny that the Mumbai underworld hires criminals from Azamgarh for their killings: "This is not a new phenomenon. Criminals go to other towns and commit crimes. But no such incident has
come to our knowledge." According to the information available with the Intelligence Bureau, a hired criminal from Azamgarh is paid between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000 for every killing. These killers don't stay on in Mumbai after their assignment.
The Mumbai police suspect the hand of the Azamgarh killers in the gunning down of Gulshan Kumar. Using hired killers, according to police officials, works to the advantage of the underworld since those carrying out the killings do not have a police record in Mumbai. Also, once they accomplish their task, they take the first train back home, pronto, leaving no trace. Predictably, it is the lure of a fast buck that draws the youth of Azamgarh and surrounding areas to Mumbai. With low educational qualifications and a poor chance of finding employment near home, they fall easy prey to the underworld which sees this eastern UP district as an area to source its manpower from. Many who venture to the city end up as freelance killers for the big gangs or join small local operatives as henchmen. Very few graduate to become an Abu Salem, who lives in Dubai and now manages Dawood's underworld empire. Salem himself is representative of the poverty-unemployment-crime chain that is the bane of eastern UP .
Ironically, Azamgarh was once considered a communist bastion. But today the district has the dubious distinction of being the "Dubai of UP". Not for the riches its people have amassed through lawful means, but for links with the Mumbai underworld in exile in West Asia. The downfall has not been easy on the inhabitants. Says Imtiyaz Ansari, a BSP MP from the area: "In Mumbai people land up in custody merely for mentioning Azamgarh as their native place."
THAT Azamgarh is the breeding ground of criminals is evident from the fact that its sitting MP, Ramakant Yadav of the Samajwadi party, has a gang named after him. Yadav is a historysheeter and his 14-member gang is reportedly well-equipped with AK-47 rifles. After facing trial for burying four Thakurs alive in 1988, Yadav and his brother Umakant were acquitted in 1996 for want of eyewitnesses. There are three other major mafia groups active in Azamgarh: the Umakant Yadav gang, the Chutkain-Badkain gang and the Hari-shankar aka Jhinku gang. Another group led by Virendra Singh alias Tata got fragmented after Tata was killed in June 1996 while being shifted from jail under police custody.
Then there is the Ramayan-Sadhu gang, which is is fast emerging as a key player in Azamgarh. Ramayan is slowly but steadily moving towards politics. Recently he presented chief minister Mayawati with a crown of gold worth Rs 1.5 lakh when she came visiting. The gang also challenged the supremacy of Ramakant by kidnapping his nephew last fortnight. "We are doing legitimate business of liquor, and as of now we are on the defensive. But the day somebody tries to attack us we will retaliate, and then nobody will be able to stop us," says Ramayan. Ramayan-Sadhu are also said to have acquired several AK-47 rifles. Though it is still a new formation, Ramayan keeps himself abreast of the latest in the underworld: "Kaam Azamgarh mein hota hai, par sauda Dubai mein baitha Abu karta hai (the work is carried out in Azamgarh, but the deal is finalised by Abu in Dubai)."
The Mumbai underworld and Azamgarh are also linked through common hawala channels. Even ordinary people earning an honest living abroad have to use the underworld conduit. If not for protection, then for sending the money home. According to an IB report submitted to the Centre, nearly 70,000 people living abroad send an average of Rs 1,000 each per month—a total of Rs 7 crore—to their families through the hawala channel, over which the D Company has a monopoly. The entire hawala racket is run out of the Nizamuddin and Jama Masjid areas in Delhi. And in Azamgarh, ISD/STD telephone booths, which have mushroomed even in the remotest parts of the district, give local hawala operators easy access to the Dubai dons.
INDEED, Gulf money earned through legal or illegal means has changed the basic contours of the villages in the district. Opulent marble houses can be spotted in the otherwise poverty-stricken hamlets. Bisham village, 15 km south of Azamgarh, boast of being the home of Dawood Ibrahim's younger brother Mustaqeem's wife. But Mustaqeem's in-laws say they have no links with the don. "We don't deny that we are related to Dawood, but we have nothing to do with him. Although we all had gone for the marriage in Mumbai, since then we have not seen our niece," said Chunchun Pahalwan, brother of Musta-qeem's father-in-law Hafiz Iltifad, who is a member of the Samajwadi Party.
It is an open secret that it is Abu Salem who controls criminal activities in eastern UP. Notorious gangsters like BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari (who was recently expelled from the BSP legislative party after being named as an accused in a murder case) and Varanasi-based mafia operator Brijesh Singh take instructions from Abu. It is also common knowledge in the Azamgarh underworld that these criminals call Abu Salem and say, "Kya hukum hai, kaptaan (what orders, captain)?" "All criminals of Poorv-anchal are getting strength from Dubai and shelter in Mumbai," says an IB official.
Notes an Azamgarh-based lawyer who came in contact with Abu Salem while doing business in Dubai: "They have a proper modern communication system over which Abu gets in touch with his boys and gives them instructions." Once, the lawyer recalls, one of the boys was assigned to kill somebody but the operation was not successful due to some lastminute problem with the weapon. When the shooter called to inform Abu Salem about the failed operation, Salem himself spelt out instructions on how to kill a person. "Gira ke tab tak sir aur peeth par goli chalate rahena jab tak puri magjiniya khali na ho jaye. Aise na chod dena (keep shooting the person in his head and in the back until the whole magazine gets empty. Don't leave him half-dead)."
Confirming that underworld dons like Abu Salem maintain direct links with Azamgarh through the phone booths (which have names like Gulf Communications), an intelligence official admits that that state government does not have the infrastructure to monitor all booths. As a result, the IB and other monitoring agencies often miss out on vital intelligence about the mafia's activities. And with the local police's failure to check criminals and the emergence of many criminal-turned-politicians from Azamgarh, this notorious district looks set to continue to be the recruiting ground for Mumbai's underworld.
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