Don Arun Gawli back in Byculla, in time for Ganesh Mahotsav

New Delhi,UPDATED: Sep 4, 2025 15:17 IST

Once plagued by the underworld, Byculla looks and feels very different today. It's now an upscale suburb in South Mumbai, but a reminder of the bloody 1990s and the aughties still exists in the form of Arun Gulab Ahir, better known as Arun Gawli. The gangster returned to Dagdi Chawl on Wednesday after being held in Nagpur Central Jail for 18 years. Something seemed off as Gawli returned to the area, which now boasts luxury towers and corporate offices, far removed from the fear that ruled Bombay when the underworld was at its peak.

Gawli was welcomed with fervour during a festival he once led–the Ganesh Mahotsav in Byculla. The man once feared as "Daddy" now carries the title of a "retired gangster". But locals know his influence hasn’t entirely faded.

Born to a retired mill worker, Gawli too began his working life in Mumbai's textile mills. But the 1982 strike, which led to the closure of several factories, left thousands unemployed. Gawli capitalised on this discontent, recruiting jobless men. By the mid-1980s, he was part of the BRA gang, named after its three leaders—Babu Reshim, Rama Naik and Arun Gawli himself.

Initially muscle for Dawood Ibrahim, the BRA soon carved out its own niche, running protection rackets and extorting money in the mill districts of central Mumbai. Gawli remained in the shadows while Naik and Reshim took the lead. But when both were eliminated in gang wars, he emerged as the last man standing, inheriting both the gang and its sprawling operations.

Dagdi Chawl in Agripada became Gawli's fortress. With secret escape routes in its serpentine lanes, it was a place from where he repeatedly escaped from Mumbai Police. Dagdi Chawl was also his court. He settled disputes and his word was often final.

For many in the Marathi working-class basti, he became a Robin Hood figure. When Bombay’s mills shut down, he doled out cash, supporting families after breadwinners were arrested in protests.

ARUN GAWLI'S FEUD WITH DAWOOD IBRAHIM

It was Gawli's bloody rivalry with Dawood Ibrahim that sealed his place in Mumbai's underworld history.

In the early 1990s, he is believed to have ordered the killing of Dawood's brother-in-law, Ibrahim Parkar. In retaliation, Dawood's men orchestrated the infamous 1992 JJ Hospital shoot-out in which Gawli sharpshooter Shailesh Haldankar was killed along with two police constables.

Even today, because of the shoot-out, the hospital has the tightest security in Mumbai with armed guards all over its lobby. It's perhaps this reason why most criminals who need medical check-ups are brought to JJ Hospital.

Gawli also lost his elder brother Kishore in the gang wars.

With bloodshed mounting, Mumbai Police, in the late 1990s, adopted a new approach–encounter killings. Officers like Vijay Salaskar, later killed in the 26/11 terror attack, became Gawli's nemeses, gunning down many of his top shooters and weakening his outfit.

Reports show that Gawli was so wary of Salaskar that during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, he reportedly refused to step out of his home to vote after hearing the officer had been deployed for security bandobast in his area.

HOW GANGSTER GAWLI TRANSFORMED INTO A POLITICIAN

Gawli then reinvented himself as a politician. In 1997, he floated the Akhil Bharatiya Sena and traded his gangster image for a Gandhi cap. In fact, in 2018, Gawli topped the Gandhian thought exam after correctly answering 74 out of 80 questions in the 2017 Gandhi Awareness Examination.

By 2004, he had been elected MLA from the Chinchpokli constituency. His wife Asha, fondly called "Mummy", his daughter Geeta, and his sister-in-law Vandana also entered civic politics as corporators.

This shift came even as his ties with Shiv Sena grew complicated. Once described by Bal Thackeray as "aapley muley" (our boys), Gawli fell out of favour when he formed his own party. Soon after, police crackdowns against his men intensified, leading to speculation that his break with Sena cost him crucial protection.

Gawli's political career came crashing down in 2008 when he was arrested in connection with the murder of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar who was shot dead in Saki Naka.

Four years later, in 2012, he was convicted under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and sentenced to life imprisonment – the first conviction of his career despite decades of run-ins with the law.

From then on, he largely disappeared from the public eye, emerging only briefly during the paroles he was granted. On Wednesday, he finally walked out of Nagpur Central Jail after the Supreme Court granted him bail, noting that he had already served nearly 18 years of his sentence.

BYCULLA'S MIXED FEELINGS UPON EX-GANGSTER'S RETURN

His return has inevitably sparked political speculation. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, overdue since 2017, are around the corner. The BMC is the country's richest civic body, and it is said that the party that controls the corporation controls Mumbai.

Byculla alone has nearly 3.5 lakh voters, and old loyalties to "Daddy" may play a role. Some believe Gawli's release could indirectly benefit Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), despite his historically uneasy ties with the Thackerays.

For many in Byculla, however, the return is not about politics but the sheer nostalgia of a feared gangster.

Gawli's public image has always been layered. To many, he was a gangster whose men carried out murders, extortions, and kidnappings. To others, he was a saviour in times of crisis, a "Daddy" who distributed cash when mills shut.

This duality was even captured on screen in the 2017 biopic 'Daddy', where actor Arjun Rampal portrayed him as both feared don and family man.

Mumbai has changed dramatically since the 1990s. Yet, the return of Arun Gawli is a reminder that the underworld's shadow still lingers in the city's political and cultural bloodstream.

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