Daddy Arun Gawli ‘Munna Bhai’ tops Gandhian philosophy exam in jail

NP NEWS NETWORK

Nagpur

Once known for his clout in Mumbai, Thane and Pune crime circle, and popularly called ‘Daddy’ by his henchmen, don Arun Gawli has topped exam on Gandhian philosophy at Nagpur Central Jail.

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Like the film ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ which helps Sanjay Dutt build his different image in people, Gawli, it is being said, is following the same line.

Gawli has claimed that he has left crime world after being acquitted in most cases. He was elected as a legislator, but he was sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case and was sent to jail. He was shifted to Nagpur to keep him away from Mumbai.

Gandhian philosophy examination has been introduced to bring changes in prisoners. Every year many prisoners appear for this exam. This year too, the examination was conducted and 160 prisoners had appeared. They were provided Gandhi philosophy books for study. Don Gawli has stood first in the examination. Gandhiji’s ideas are of non-violence, the British too had the fear of such thoughts. Arun Gawli’s personality is of criminal background, he had created havoc from the mid-1980s to 1990s.

However, it has to be seen how much changes this exam brings in the life of Gawli. He started as mill working Marathi guy from Byculla,Mumbai, then became a dreaded gangster and then a politician and then a convict. Arun Gawli or Arun Gulab Ahir, aka ‘Daddy’ whose life not only sounds flimsy but his life also inspired a movie. Gawli became a godfather figure for his followers, particularly the residents of Dagdi Chawl where he lived. He later joined politics and floated his own party named the Akhil Bharatiya Sena.

Gawli was born in Kopargaon, Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra on July 17, 1955. His father Gulabrao had moved from Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra in the early 1950s. Much of the Gawli clan – including Arun’s father Gulab Gawli – worked in the mill industry, but the latter was eager that his children acquire a good education. In fact, Arun did manage to complete his matriculation – which was a big deal in the sixties and seventies – but once his father left his job, he had to look for work himself.

He married Asha Gawli and has two children, Mahesha and Geeta, who is a corporation.

After his father left his job, Gawli joined Shakti Mills in Mahalaxmi – but it was in 1977 that he joined Crompton Greaves and first shook hands with Sadashiv Pawle (later called Sada Mama). It was in Sada Mama’s company that Gawli first turned to anti-social activities.

It was at Crompton Greaves that Gawli ran into Rama Naik, who he had gone to school with. It was in the 1980s, then, that Gawli joined the “Byculla Company” gang led by Naik and Babu Reshim, and supervised their illegal liquor dens. Their gang would go on to be called – and feared – as the B.R.A. gang (Babu, Rama and Arun).

In 1984, Rama Naik helped Dawood Ibrahim to eliminate his then arch-rival Samad Khan, the leader of the Pathan gang in Mumbai. From 1984 to 1988, the Byculla Company supported Dawood’s local criminal activities, who himself had escaped police arrest and settled in Dubai. In 1988, however, Rama Naik and Sharad Shetty had major differences over a land deal in Jogeshwari. Dawood supported Shetty, which enraged Naik, who in turn insulted Dawood. In late 1988, Naik was killed in a police encounter.

Subsequently, Arun Gawli took charge of the gang based at Dagdi Chawl in Byculla. Gawli believed that the encounter in which Naik was killed was engineered by Dawood, and thus started a gruesome gang war between Dawood’s D-Company gang and Gawli’s gang that lasted from 1988 until the mid-1990s.