Organised crime in India
| Founding location | India |
|---|---|
| Territory | Active in many parts of India Australia, Burma, Canada, France including its overseas departments, Germany, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and United Arab Emirates |
| Ethnicity | Indian |
| Criminal activities | Racketeering, drug trafficking, corruption, entryism, extortion, loan sharking, human trafficking, money laundering, robbery, bootlegging, arms trafficking, gambling, funding Bollywood illegally, bribery, skimming, tax evasion and forgery |
| Allies | Indo-Canadian gangs, Russian Mafia, Israeli mafia, Nigerian mafia |
Organised crime in India is a reference to organised crime elements originating in India and active in many parts of the world. The mafia is involved in many criminal activities based in India and international as well. The Indian mafia also refers to those powerful families that have criminal aspects to them.
Mumbai underworld refers to the organised crime network in the city of Mumbai, in the state of Maharashtra in India. Mumbai is the largest city of India and also its financial capital. Over the period of time, Mumbai underworld has been dominated by several different groups and mobsters.
Haji Mastan was a Mumbai based mobster, who became the first celebrity gangster of the city of Mumbai, expanding his clout in the film industry by giving money to directors and studios for film production. As Mastan's influence in Bollywood grew, he began to produce films himself. Born in 1926 in a Tamil family in Pannaikulam, near Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, Haji Mastan originally known as Mastan Haider Mirza at the age of 8 moved to Mumbai with his father. The father-son duo ran a small cycle repair shop in Crawford market. 10 years later in the year 1944, Mastan joined Bombay docks as a porter and from there entered in organised crime. He worked in association with Karim Lala and by 1960s he became a rich man. The riches he accumulated were because of smuggling gold, silver and electronic goods on which he made millions. He even started financing his money in Bollywood and became a film producer.
Varadarajan Mudaliar, popularly known as Vardha bhai, was a Mumbai based ethnic Hindu Mumbai mafia mobster, Varadarajan Muniswami Mudaliar came to be known as Vardhabhai who operated from early 1960s to 1980 and accorded equal clout along with Haji Mastan and Karim Lala. Starting off as a porter, his first brush with the crime world was when he began selling illicit liquor. He commanded a lot of respect within the Tamil community and he also ran a parallel judiciary where his verdict was the law of the land and final and binding in areas such as Matunga and Dharavi, believed to have a large presence of Tamilians. The Tamil don in tandem with Haji Mastan ventured into stealing dock cargo. He later diversified into contract killings and narcotics trade. He enjoyed a fine run as he entirely through the seventies, controlled the criminal operations in east and north central Mumbai. Karim Lala commanded south and central Mumbai and majority of smuggling and illegal construction financing was an area looked into by Haji Mastan
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