COLD COMFORT: Asha Gawli weeping after her husband Arun Gawli was arrested by Mumbai police on Wednesday in connection with builder Natwarlal Desai's murder.

AUGUST 20: Underworld don Arun Gawli was today arrested from his Dagdi Chawl residence in connection with the murder of Shanti Star Construction director Natwarlal Desai on Tuesday. Three of his gang members were shot dead when they allegedly tried to prevent the don's arrest. Two policemen - PSI Milan Koyel and Prakash Sawant - were also injured in the crossfire.

Gawli, who has been arrested under the Maharashtra State Prevention of Slum Lords and Dangerous Persons Act, was directly taken to the Colaba lock-up and put in a first-floor cell. He will be produced at the Esplanade Court tomorrow. The act provides for a year's detention of slum lords and goonda. The raiding party comprised over a hundred policemen and women constables. In a swift and well-orchestrated operation, the women constables barricaded Gawli's house as their male counterparts barged in to arrest the don, who was having lunch with his wife and kids on the second floor.

Zonal Deputy Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh said the don's arrest was combined with a routine combing operation. The firing, he said, took place when the raiding party tried to open a room which was locked from inside. He said some unidentified men, holed up inside, opened fire at the police when they tried to break in. The police returned the fire killing all three. The dead were later identified as Vijay Kamble alias Muchwa, Vijay Shirodkar alias Sade Teen and Pankaj Pandya. ``Police recovered an imported pistol, revolver and a country-made revolver from the room,'' said Singh, adding that ``all the gangsters have serious offences registered against them, including murders.''

The residents of Dagdi Chawl, including the don's wife Asha Gawli, however have a different tale to tell. They have accused police of isolating the three boys after Gawli was escorted out and killing them in cold blood. ``The police should have arrested them instead of separating them from us and then shooting them down,'' Asha Gawli told reporters, who were allowed inside the house much after Gawli was taken away and the bodies were removed.The visiting scribes were taken around the house by Asha. The room where the three were killed was freshly washed. Still, the deep stains of blood on furniture and lower parts of walls and stairs were clearly visible. The wooden door of the room was partly broken and had some holes in it, which indicated firing from either sides before it was broken open.

Asha said: ``We could not hear the firing as police had closed all the gates after we came out with Daddy (Gawli).'' Gawli's staff said around 50 people were present in the house when the raiding party came. ``First they arrested Daddy and took him out along with his family. Then they took all of us out, went back, locked the gates and started firing,'' said an old man.

Activists of Gawli's political outfit Akhil Bharatiya Sena, which has its office inside Dagdi Chawl, said police had entered the house with iron rods and were hitting them against the doors and windows to muffle the sound of firing.

``Why are police only after Gawli, why don't they book Raj Thackeray in the Ramesh Kini murder case? All this is being done at the behest of Bal Thackeray,'' they pointedly said.

Police, however, maintain that all three killed in the raid were active members of Gawli gang. A senior officer said Vijay Kamble alias Muchwa was a close associate of Kanjur Marg don Ashok Joshi. He joined the Gawli gang in 1987 after Joshi's death in an encounter near Panvel in 1987. Muchwa formed a deadly combination with gangster Vijay Tandel and was involved in the murder of Ratan Mhatre at Dombivli in 1996. Vijay Shirodkar alias `Sade Teen' belonged to the Sada Pawle faction of the gang and was involved in the murder of Gawli's close associate and childhood friend Ashok Chaudhuri alias Chhota Babu at Mazgaon in late 1995. Police said the antecedents of Pankaj Pandya were being investigated.

Police Commissioner Subhash Malhotra later in the day told reporters: ``Investigations have revealed that Gawli was instrumental in the killing of Desai. We expect to find out the shooters' identities after his interrogation.'' He added that Desai was being threatened by Gawli's henchmen and he was even summoned to Dagdi Chawl some time back. About Desai's record, Malhotra said that he was not a clean man. ``In the past Desai had used Bhai Thakur and Dawood Ibrahim for eviction of tribals from large tracts of land at Mira Road where he had built many housing colonies.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.