Varadarajan Mudaliar
| Varadarajan Mudaliar | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 1 1926 Tuticorin, Madras Presidency, British India |
| Died | 2 January 1988 |
Varadarajan Muniswami Mudaliar (1926 – 2 January 1988), also known as Vardhabhai, was an Indian gangster. For two decades from early 1960s to 1980s, he was one of the most powerful mob bosses in Bombay along with Haji Mastan and Karim Lala.
Varadarajan was born in Thoothukudi, Madras Presidency in 1926 to a union leader who was shot to death by the police. He moved to Bombay in 1945. Working as a porter at VT Station, he began his crime life by distributing illicit liquor. In association with Haji Mastan, who had by then established a smuggling operation at Bombay Port Docks, he ventured into stealing dock cargo. He later diversified into contract killings at the behest of businessmen, narcotics trade and land encroachment. Through the seventies, Varadarajan controlled the criminal operations in east and north central Mumbai, Karim Lala held sway in south and central Mumbai and most smuggling and illegal construction financing was managed by Haji Mastan.
Varadarajan ran a parallel judicial system within the Tamil community. His word prevailed in Matunga and Dharavi areas, where Tamils were in majority.
Mumbai was ruled by the trio Haji Mastan, Karim Lala and Varadarajan Mudaliar. The trio has the solid backing of their communities. Their word was law for the people belonging to their communities.
But by mid-1980s the police officer Y.C.Pawar targeted Varadarajan Mudaliar. Most of his gang members were eliminated or imprisoned. Varadarajan Mudaliar fled from Mumbai to Chennai.
While a porter at CST Station, Varadarajan began offering food to the poor at the nearby dargah of Bismillah Shah Baba and kept the tradition up as his fortunes rose.
His opulent pandals at Matunga station during the annual Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations were quite famous and visited by celebrities. However, after the collapse of the cotton mills in Mumbai in the mid-1980s, their relevance ended.
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