Gawli Walks Free

FIFTY-ODD women supporters accompanied Mumbai's dreaded underworld don Arun Gawli on the air-conditioned luxury bus in which he triumphantly rode home to the notorious Dagdi chawl after his release from prison. The don seemed oblivious to all the heat he had been generating. On May 5, the Nagpur bench of the Mumbai High Court stated in unequivocal terms that Gawli's arrest and detention under the National Security Act (NSA) was illegal. This is the first time that a case against an NSA detenue has been overturned by a court. The order, passed by Justices Ashok Desai and S.B. Mhase, rapped senior officers for "misuse of office and for not exercising their authority in good faith". Besides, in the startling order, the court slapped exemplary damages of Rs 25,000 on additional home secretary P. Subrahmanyam, Mumbai police commissioner S.C. Malhotra and inspector-general of prisons M.G. Naravane. It also directed the state government to prosecute three jail superintendents for dereliction of duty and for allowing Gawli to run his vast nether-world fiefdom from within prison walls. In addition, the superintendents would have to pay Rs 15,000 as exemplary cost.

The establishment has been visibly shaken by the judgement. Prominent members of the judiciary alternately hailed the precedent-setting judgement and decried it. Moreover, the political twist to the arrest and release of Gawli has made the judgement yet more controversial.

Last December, the don was acquitted of a series of criminal charges, but he always feared a rearrest. This happened during the civic polls in February when trouble arose between the Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS), a party he floated, and the Shiv Sena. Gawli claims the police acted on orders from Sena chief Bal Thackeray—a charge that police commissioner Malhotra denies. "I was asked by Sena MP Mohan Rawle to wind up the ABS. He was probably following Thackeray's instructions," adds Gawli.

The court has now ruled that none of the things which Gawli was charged with—two separate cases of extortion filed by builders and charges that he was harbour-ing criminals in Dagdi chawl—amount to disrupting public order and that they do not warrant arrest under NSA.

The judgement was the outcome of a petition filed by the gangleader's wife, Asha, claiming that her husband was being victimised for political reasons. Thackeray had once, in reference to the Hindu-Muslim situation, said: "If they have a Dawood, we have a Gawli." The Sena chief, the Gawlis felt, was now turning against him. The political implications have assumed alarming proportions for the state government. And the Congress is taking full advantage of it. Spurred on by the Congress, the Rashtr-iya Mill Mazdoor Sangh (RMMS)—whose president is Arun Gawli's nephew San-jay Ahir—has successfully yanked the union flag out from the hands of the Sena-led unions in the prestigious Bombay Hospital and Oberoi Hotels. The ABS, a fledgling political party, has aspirations to topple the Shiv Sena on which they model themselves closely. It supposedly has on its rolls 1.5 lakh members, most of them for- disgruntled Sainiks. Insinuating their into the working-class vote-bank, the , apeing the Sena, has set up shakhas. There are 35 shakhas in Mumbai and one in Nashik, Pune and Kolhapur.

This development has not escaped Thackeray's eye. Reacting sharply to the pretenders, the Sena chief vented his in the party mouthpiece Saamna: "Eighty Senas have come and gone. Ours is only one that has remained." The ABS has replied with equal vehem-. Senior ABS leaders promise a fight to finish if Gawli ever falls prey in an 'encounter'. Several social welfare 'man- in the surrounding Dagdi chawl area to file a writ petition in the Mumbai High Court to ensure that their leader is eliminated in a staged skirmish.

Meanwhile, Gawli too is determined not become a victim in a staged encounter the police—there have been 35 alleged dubious police encounters this year. He had received an assurance of safety from Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, which was later red-facedly retracted. Now, newly appointed as working president of ABS, Gawli still insists: "I have been approached by the ABS but I do not know what they want from me. I will attend their meetings and tell them not to get into politics. I also do not aspire to become a minister. I really want to become a sadhu."

 That the Godfather is gunning for a hig- life should comfort the ruling Sena. But, with Gawli's reputation of being a master in misinformation, his preference for a laid-back life could prove to be a red herring.