The Mumbai gangland is facing a shortage of manpower. There is a dearth of men keen to join the underworld. Worried by regular encounters and crippled by the draconian Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA), human resources in the underworld are on a decline, police sources said.
Chhota Rajan men killed in 1996 Ismail Malbari, the person who recruited men for the Chhota Shakeel gang. Meanwhile, in an encounter last year, the Mahim police killed Chhota Rajan recruiter Sunil Madgoankar alias Matya. And, the Gawli gang recruiter Raju Philips is lying low after his prolonged imprisonment under TADA, and later, MPDA.
Almost all the recruiters ( one for each gang) playing a major role in each of the underworld gangs for appointing new youths in the gangs are shot dead or had been detained for their notorious activities.
The youth arriving Mumbai in search of jobs from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and several other states get involve in minor crimes and are lodged in to jails where the come close to underworld mafias. The recruiters approach small time criminals and in jails and appoints them in underworld gangs by promising huge amounts.
On other hand stern action against the underworld gangsters had emptied the most prominent gangsters from their respective gangs. The most notorious lieutenant O P Singh of Rajan gang is at present cooling his heels in lock up and there had been ten to 15 police stations had queued up to press charges against him.
Beside emergence of encounters specialist, Pradeep Sharma who encountered 62 gangsters, Praful Bhonsale gunned down 82 criminals and Vijay Salaskar bumped off 29 gangsters. This exerted brakes on the underworld activities.
However, MCOCA played a bigger role than the encounters. Over 150 gangsters have been detained under MCOCA since last year, of whom over a half dozen have been convicted so far. A fear psychosis is prevalent among the lower rung mafia members that if a tycoon like Bharat Shah is detained under MCOCA and even a telephone booth operator is not spared then how can they escape the long arm of the law once they join the gang police said.
"Earlier youths from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh joined Mumbai gangland because they thought it is fun and quick buck but now with police turning the heat on them they are reluctant to pledge allegiance to any gang," said an additional commissioner of police on the condition of anonymity.
