Chapter 4 – Gang Wars in Mumbai: Blood on the Streets

A Crime Diaries Exclusive | August 2025

There was a time when Mumbai, the city of dreams, looked more like a city under siege. During the height of the Mumbai Gang Wars, behind the glitter of Marine Drive and the chaos of Crawford Market, fear quietly ruled everyday life. Ordinary citizens, shopkeepers, and businessmen all knew one truth: survival meant paying the price. Extortion calls were so common that ‘hafta’ was treated like another monthly bill, no different from electricity or rent.

By the late 1980s and through the bloody 1990s, gangsters stopped lurking in shadows. They no longer hid; they marched into the city’s streets, its dance bars, its film studios, and even its politics. Their presence was loud, brutal, and undeniable.

At the heart of this storm stood three men who reshaped Mumbai’s crime story: Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan, and Arun Gawli. Their rivalries weren’t just personal; they were wars that turned Mumbai’s neighborhoods into battlegrounds.

Dawood Ibrahim From Dongri to D-Company

Dawood Ibrahim’s journey began in the narrow lanes and crowded chawls of Dongri, but his ambitions quickly outgrew the city. From a small-time smuggler, he transformed into the most feared don of Mumbai, building an empire that came to be known as D-Company.

By the late 1980s, his syndicate dominated almost every illegal trade: smuggling, hawala networks, extortion rackets, and contract killings. Businesses paid protection money, akin to a tax, and anyone who resisted faced bullets instead of negotiations.

What set Dawood apart was not just his ruthlessness but his vision. He cultivated international connections, shifting operations to Dubai and later Karachi. From abroad, he ran the city through loyal lieutenants, corrupt officials, and underground financiers.

His strategy was simple yet devastating: blend brutal violence with sophisticated financial channels. The result was a criminal network that could strike locally in Mumbai while moving money and power across borders, making Dawood Ibrahim not just a don, but a global shadow.

The Brotherhood Breaks; Rajan Splits from Dawood

In the beginning, Dawood Ibrahim and Rajendra Nikalje, better known as Chhota Rajan, were not enemies but allies. Dawood was the strategist, the man with vision and international connections. Rajan, on the other hand, was the street commander, a figure who inspired loyalty among young men in Mumbai’s lanes and chawls. Together, they built an empire where brains and muscle worked hand in hand.

But everything changed after the 1993 Bombay bombings, killing hundreds and scarring the city forever. Dawood was accused of playing a key role, allegedly working with elements across the border. The blasts changed not only Mumbai’s landscape but also the structure of its underworld.

Rajan, unwilling to be associated with an act that branded Dawood a terrorist, broke away. What had once been a partnership turned into a bitter rivalry. Dawood remained the global operator with his overseas bases, while Rajan built a parallel network, determined to challenge his former mentor. The result was a bloody feud that spilled onto Mumbai’s streets, with the city caught in the crossfire.

The Blood Feud From Bangkok to Mumbai

The Dawood–Rajan feud soon spilled far beyond India’s borders. Hits, reprisals, and secret plots stretched across continents, leaving a trail of fear wherever they struck. Attempts to kill leaders in Bangkok, attacks on key lieutenants, and public shootouts in Mumbai showed that neither side would give up or show mercy.

As the violence escalated, it turned into a relentless campaign of elimination. Contract killings and street hits became grim regulars in the headlines, while ordinary citizens were forced to live under a constant shadow of fear. The feud didn’t just claim lives; it reshaped the very atmosphere of the city, leaving an indelible mark on its underworld.

Arun Gawli The Local Powerbroker

Running parallel to the Dawood–Rajan feud was Arun Gawli’s rise from Dagdi Chawl. Unlike the international networks of D-Company, Gawli built his power locally, relying on street-level muscle, neighborhood loyalty, and political influence. His grip on the area was personal and direct, making him a formidable force in Mumbai’s underworld.

“Locals called him “Daddy,” a figure who combined brute strength with a populist image. He protected his community while simultaneously collecting protection money and leveraging influence during elections. Gawli’s clashes with D-Company, coupled with his entry into politics, blurred the lines between crime and governance, introducing a dangerous new dimension to the city’s gang wars.

Famous Flashpoints When the Streets Ran Red

The decade of the 1990s produced a string of violent flashpoints:

• Lokhandwala (1991–1994 era actions): Encounters and gunbattles that signalled a more confrontational police posture.
• Cross-border assassination attempts and Bangkok incidents: High-profile attempts showed the feud’s international reach.
• Daily extortion and “protection” rackets: Builders, shopkeepers, and film financiers were pressured to pay or face violence.

These incidents were not isolated spectacles; they were the visible face of a wider system that fed on fear, money, and political shelter.

Real Lives, Real Loss: The Human Cost

Behind the headlines of dons and sensational shootouts lay thousands of quiet, often forgotten tragedies. A shopkeeper was gunned down simply for refusing to pay hafta; a driver became an unintended casualty in a gang crossfire; a mother spent sleepless nights haunted by the memory of a bullet that had pierced her wall months ago. These were the countless collateral victims, far outnumbering the notorious names that made the news.

The gang wars didn’t just claim lives, they destroyed livelihoods, tore families apart, and left widows and orphans struggling to survive. Children grew up wary of every phone call, every unexpected knock at the door, and every sudden sound in the night. Entire neighborhoods lived under the constant shadow of fear, where the threat of violence was woven into daily life, and the city itself seemed to breathe tension and uncertainty.

The Police Answer The Encounter Era

As the body count rose, the Mumbai police shifted tactics. The 1990s saw the emergence of “encounter specialists” officers who tracked and killed known gangsters in on-scene shootouts. Names like Daya Nayak and Pradeep Sharma became household words. Encounters were controversial: lauded by many as decisive action against violent criminals, criticized by human rights observers as extrajudicial. Regardless of the debate, these operations dealt significant blows to organized crime and changed the underworld’s operating space.

Systemic Failures That Let the Mafia Grow

The gang war era thrived because several systemic failures fed it:

• Political collusion – some politicians used muscle for electoral gains; in return, gangsters received protection.
• Corruption and information leaks – a few sympathetic or compromised officers passed on leads or turned a blind eye.
• Economic marginalization – lack of legitimate opportunities pushed many youths into gangs.
• Slow judicial process – long trials, weak evidence, and procedural delays allowed offenders to stay active.

When institutions are hollowed out or slow, criminal networks exploit the gaps.

Decline Not Disappearance

By the 2000s, the era of violent, street-level gang wars in Mumbai had largely faded. Dawood operated from abroad, orchestrating his empire from a distance, while Rajan spent years in exile before being finally arrested overseas. Gawli, once a dominant force in Dagdi Chawl, faced multiple convictions and political setbacks that weakened his hold. Constant police crackdowns, shifting economic realities, and stricter legal measures gradually dismantled the visible structures of the classic gangs, putting an end to the brazen shootouts and public showdowns that had once gripped the city.

Yet, the underworld did not disappear; it evolved. Many networks quietly shifted into drugs, illegal finance, cybercrime, and political influence, moving away from the streets and into more hidden, sophisticated operations. While the gunfights and public vendettas became headlines of the past, the reach of these networks persisted, subtly shaping neighborhoods, businesses, and local politics. The city’s underworld had changed its form, but its presence remained, a reminder that crime never truly dies; it only adapts.

Conclusion: The City Still Bears the Scars

Mumbai’s gang wars left a harsh mark: when power, money, and lawlessness come together, ordinary people suffer the most. In the 1990s, streets turned into battle zones. Gunfire in crowded lanes, extortion, and sudden violence made daily life full of fear. Shopkeepers worried about paying hafta, passersby could get caught in crossfires, and families slept with one eye open. Even today, amid Mumbai’s modern buildings, the scars of that time are still visible, a reminder of a city once ruled by fear.

The underworld was cruel and well-organized. Leaders like Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan, and Arun Gawli ran networks from local streets to overseas. Shootouts, targeted killings, and protection rackets were common, while betrayals and fights for power controlled the gangs. Ordinary people lived in constant fear, never knowing who might be the next victim.

Though crime has changed, street fights have been replaced by cyberfraud and political influence, the causes are still the same: inequality, corruption, weak institutions, and links between crime and politics. Understanding this history is important to fight crime today and make sure the past doesn’t repeat itself.

Promo: Next Chapter

Chapter 5: The Encounter Era: When Cops Became the Gangsters’ Worst Nightmare next, we’ll explore how the Mumbai police shifted strategies, the rise of encounter specialists, the controversies around them, and the thin line between justice and vigilantism.

Sources and References

The following reports and surveys were used to verify the facts and figures cited above:

• Times of India: “Two arrested in 48 hours for duping Mumbai senior citizen of ₹1.26 crore in digital arrest scam.”
• Times of India: Coverage of Bengaluru and nationwide cyber fraud cases, including reports of senior citizens losing approximately ₹73 lakh in WhatsApp and investment scams.
• NDTV: “Elderly Delhi man duped by AI-cloned voice, loses ₹50,000 in extortion” (Dec 2023).
• India Today / McAfee India Survey: Findings show that AI has made scams harder to detect, with 40% of respondents believing their voice may have been cloned.
• WhatsApp User Statistics: India is the platform’s largest market, with hundreds of millions of users.

Additional context and historical analysis on the Mumbai underworld were drawn from established long-form accounts and archival reporting, including S. Hussain Zaidi’s books and historical news archives from Times of India and Indian Express, which serve as standard reference texts for this period.