Pappu Kalani
Encyclopedia
Pappu Kalani is an India
n criminal-politician from Ulhasnagar
(a
suburb of
Mumbai
, India
). After emerging as the leader of an organized crime
syndicate in the 1980s, he won elections for the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
in
1986 with the Indian National Congress
party,. He won 1990 elections as Indian National Congress
, 1995, 1999 elections as Independent and
has been elected continuously from this seat
since then, including two elections in the period
1992–2001 when he was in jail on murder charges.
His formal name is Suresh Budharmal Kalani and Pappu may be a nickname,
though he prefers it as part of the formal name, writing Suresh (Pappu) Budharmal Kalani in his election papers.
Pappu Kalani is how he is inevitably referred to, however.
He is currently on bail in 19 cases including eight of murder and was most recently elected
the MLA
for Ulhasnagar from
the Republican Party of India (Athavale) in the Maharashtra state assembly elections, 2004
.
Dunichand Kalani was the president of the local unit of Indian National Congress
. The family ran a liquor business and owned a number of
distilleries and hotels. In the 1970s, Ulhasnagar was a booming lawless town settled by
entrepreneurial refugees who had emigrated from Sindh
, Pakistan
after
the Partition of India
in 1947. Sharp business
practices (Ulhasnagar was known for its "duplicate"s or forged goods)
combined with illegal construction and unauthorised industrial units
made for
an atmosphere where "protection" emerged as a profitable business.
A number of gangs were soon working under the patronage of political
parties. Pappu Kalani's uncle Keemat Kalani, also affiliated with the
Congress party, ran the gang
headed by Chiman Tejwani, while the opposing parties,
under politician Gop Behrani, employed
the gang of
Govind Vachani and Gopal Rajwani
. It is reported that both gangs were connected to the
Dawood Ibrahim
gang. Use was also made of the media, and hush money were
regularly paid to journalists.
In 1983, Gopal Rajwani was for a while aligned with Pappu Kalani, and they executed
the brutal knife murder of the
editor A V Narayan of Blitz magazine. Rajwani was
arrested for this, but he was eventually acquitted due to lack of witnesses
and shoddy prosecution. Nothing came out of this dastardly murder however as the Indian press
never stood up against this criminal.
In 1986, Pappu Kalani was elected president of the Ulhasnagar Municipal Council (UMC),
and the same year, he was chosen by the Indian National Congress
party as
its candidate for the state legislature
from
Ulhasnagar, and easily won the
seat.
Meanwhile Gopal Rajwani and Pappu had fallen out
over the division of extortion money.
In April 1985, Rajwani was arrested in an extortion case, apparently at
Kalani's
bidding. As Rajwani
was being escorted to the police station in a rickshaw, Kalani
arranged for his men to attack him with bombs and guns. Rajwani survived the
attack and eventually relocated to Dubai
, with the help of Haji Mastan
, a
notorious smuggler and senior don of that time.
In April 1989, Pappu's uncle Dudhichand Kalani was murdered, allegedly by the
Govind Vachani / Gopal Rajwani gang, at the
instance of Gop Behrani. This led to reprisal killings – as many as 22 murders in five
months. It was said during this period that
"there would be a killing in Ulhasnagar every Tuesday."
It was during this period that Pappu Kalani emerged as the leader of his own
organized crime gang.
shot dead, despite having been given state police protection. Also shot dead in 1990 were gangster Anna Shetty,
and rickshaw union leader and bodyguard of Rajwani, Maruti Jadhav, both of whom were
affiliated with the Gopal Rajwani gang. Jadhav in his dying declaration, as well as another person who was injured in the revolver attack, identified Pappu Kalani personally, and he would later be refused bail in
this murder case.
In 1990, when Pappu Kalani was formally named in some of these murders, he was expelled from the Congress
party.
In 1992, when the clean-imaged Sudhakarrao Naik
took over as Chief
Minister from Sharad Pawar
,
he launched a drive against criminal-politicians. Media pressure increased tremendously after the September 1992 shootout where Dawood Ibrahim
's gang killed Shailesh Haldankar of the Arun Gawli
gang as well as several on-duty policemen at Mumbai
's JJ Hospital. Thereafter,
Pappu Kalani, along with Bhai Thakur, brother of politician-ganglord Hitendra Thakur
, were arrested in November 1992, along with some others gangsters. Pappu was charged with
the gang murders from 1990 and with the JJ Hospital shootout-ably executed by D-Company's Shyam Kishore Garikapatti alias "Black Scorpion"; a total of 19 cases were filed against him.
He was jailed under
the repressive Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act
, which
permitted imprisonment for "terrorists" even
without trial. Several appeals against his incarceration failed – the court
found him sufficiently implicated in the Maruti Jadhav murder to label him as
a level "A" terrorist, and bail was repeatedly denied. However, TADA laws were found inappropriate in some other charges –
particularly for both the Bhateja murders, and also
in the JJ Hospital shootout case, which were transferred to a sessions court. However, none of these cases progressed to trial.
Altogether, he spent nine years in jail under TADA before being eventually released on
bail in 2002.
At one point, Sudhakarrao made a statement that the state leader of Indian National Congress
party and erstwhile Chief Minister Sharad Pawar
, had asked him to
"go easy on Pappu Kalani".
At another time,
Chief Minister Manohar Joshi
of Shiv Sena
announced his
intention to prosecute criminal-politicians, but political realities ensured that nothing much was done.
Under Indian law
, someone who has not been sentenced to more
than two years for a crime cannot be considered guilty of a major crime and
is free to
fight elections. Thus, despite being in jail, Kalani kept fighting
and winning the assembly seat from Ulhasnagar, partly because of the
family's muscle, but also because in his first term, Kalani had worked
to improve the roads and the water supply.
In 1999, when his mentor Sharad Pawar
formed the National Congress Party
, Pappu
also joined it. However, mounting public pressure proved disruptive for the
nascent party and he was forced to resign. At this time, he handed over the Municipal
corporation to his wife Jyoti Kalani, who would also soon be arrested on
charges
of forgery, non-payment of revenue and illegal liquor manufacturing.
of bullets as he was coming out of a car at the magistrate's court to attend
a case. It was widely believed that Pappu Kalani, at the time still in jail,
may have masterminded it.
Immediately after his release from jail in 2001, several cases arose where he
allegedly tried to intimidate one Bhoir family, part of whose land had been illegally encroached upon to build the Seema Holiday Home (since demolished) owned by the Kalanis, and also the shopowner Ramesh Rohra.
In 2004, Pappu Kalani again won the assembly elections, as a candidate of the
Republican Party of India (Athavale). His wife however,
continues to be with the National Congress Party
.
In 2005, the Bombay High Court ordered the demolition of 855 illegal
structures in Ulhasnagar, Pappu Kalani, a large part of whose extortion money depended on
permitting illegal constructions, passed a law permitting most of them to be
legalized. However, many structures did not even pay the legalization fees, and
large scale demolitions were launched in Ulhasnagar for most of 2006.
In the municipal elections of 2007, despite very little electioneering by
opposing groups, Pappu Kalani's group mustered only 15 seats (out of 76),
and it is thought that the influence of musclepower may have waned
considerably in Ulhasnagar.
was out of power or in prison, becoming the president (mayor) of the powerful Ulhasnagar
Municipal Council. In recent years, she too faced several charges of intimidation and forgery, and lost the 2007 municipal elections. His son
Omi Kalani has been named in several extortion and assault cases in 2005, and he also has a daughter Seema.
In 2004, his brother Narayan Kalani was arrested for three murders dating back to the
internecine gang warfare of 1990.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n criminal-politician from Ulhasnagar
Ulhasnagar
Ulhasnagar Ulhasnagar, also referred to as Sindhunagar, has an estimated population of 472,943 people .The name derives from the Ulhas river which flows through it. Kalyan is situated near Ulhasnagar. The city is home to many types of businesses....
(a
suburb of
Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
). After emerging as the leader of an organized crime
syndicate in the 1980s, he won elections for the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha
The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha or the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated in the Nariman Point area of South Mumbai in the capital Mumbai...
in
1986 with the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
party,. He won 1990 elections as Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
, 1995, 1999 elections as Independent and
has been elected continuously from this seat
since then, including two elections in the period
1992–2001 when he was in jail on murder charges.
His formal name is Suresh Budharmal Kalani and Pappu may be a nickname,
though he prefers it as part of the formal name, writing Suresh (Pappu) Budharmal Kalani in his election papers.
Pappu Kalani is how he is inevitably referred to, however.
He is currently on bail in 19 cases including eight of murder and was most recently elected
the MLA
Member of the Legislative Assembly
A Member of the Legislative Assembly or a Member of the Legislature , is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to the legislature or legislative assembly of a sub-national jurisdiction....
for Ulhasnagar from
the Republican Party of India (Athavale) in the Maharashtra state assembly elections, 2004
Maharashtra state assembly elections, 2004
Assembly elections was held in Maharashtra, India on October 13, 2004. The major alliances were the Democratic Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party - Shiv Sena alliance. Other political parties contested were the Bahujan Samajwadi Party, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the LJP...
.
Life and career
Born into a wealthy family, Pappu Kalani's uncleDunichand Kalani was the president of the local unit of Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
. The family ran a liquor business and owned a number of
distilleries and hotels. In the 1970s, Ulhasnagar was a booming lawless town settled by
entrepreneurial refugees who had emigrated from Sindh
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
after
the Partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
in 1947. Sharp business
practices (Ulhasnagar was known for its "duplicate"s or forged goods)
combined with illegal construction and unauthorised industrial units
made for
an atmosphere where "protection" emerged as a profitable business.
A number of gangs were soon working under the patronage of political
parties. Pappu Kalani's uncle Keemat Kalani, also affiliated with the
Congress party, ran the gang
headed by Chiman Tejwani, while the opposing parties,
under politician Gop Behrani, employed
the gang of
Govind Vachani and Gopal Rajwani
Gopal Rajwani
Gopal Rajwani was a criminal-politician with the Shiv Sena party, from Ulhasnagar, Maharashtra . Formerly associated with the ganglord Dawood Ibrahim, he joined the Shiv Sena in 1996. He was killed as he was appearing in a court case at Ulhasnagar in January 2000.-Life:Rajwani began his life...
. It is reported that both gangs were connected to the
Dawood Ibrahim
Dawood Ibrahim
Dawood Ibrahim , also known as Dawood Ebrahim, and Sheikh Dawood Hassan, is the head of the organized crime syndicate [[D-Company]] in Mumbai. He is currently on the wanted list of Interpol for organised crime and counterfeiting. He was No. 4 on the Forbes' World's Top 10 most dreaded criminals...
gang. Use was also made of the media, and hush money were
regularly paid to journalists.
In 1983, Gopal Rajwani was for a while aligned with Pappu Kalani, and they executed
the brutal knife murder of the
editor A V Narayan of Blitz magazine. Rajwani was
arrested for this, but he was eventually acquitted due to lack of witnesses
and shoddy prosecution. Nothing came out of this dastardly murder however as the Indian press
never stood up against this criminal.
In 1986, Pappu Kalani was elected president of the Ulhasnagar Municipal Council (UMC),
and the same year, he was chosen by the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
party as
its candidate for the state legislature
Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha
The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha or the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated in the Nariman Point area of South Mumbai in the capital Mumbai...
from
Ulhasnagar, and easily won the
seat.
Meanwhile Gopal Rajwani and Pappu had fallen out
over the division of extortion money.
In April 1985, Rajwani was arrested in an extortion case, apparently at
Kalani's
bidding. As Rajwani
was being escorted to the police station in a rickshaw, Kalani
arranged for his men to attack him with bombs and guns. Rajwani survived the
attack and eventually relocated to Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, with the help of Haji Mastan
Haji Mastan
Haji Mastan Mirza, popularly known as Haji Mastan or Bawa, was a Bombay gangster and smuggler in the 1960s and 1970s. Mastan became the first celebrity gangster of the city, expanding his clout in the film industry. As Mastan's influence in Bollywood grew, he began to produce films...
, a
notorious smuggler and senior don of that time.
In April 1989, Pappu's uncle Dudhichand Kalani was murdered, allegedly by the
Govind Vachani / Gopal Rajwani gang, at the
instance of Gop Behrani. This led to reprisal killings – as many as 22 murders in five
months. It was said during this period that
"there would be a killing in Ulhasnagar every Tuesday."
It was during this period that Pappu Kalani emerged as the leader of his own
organized crime gang.
Bhateja, Shetty, and Jadhav murders
In February and April 1990, nephews of Gop Behrani, Ghanashyam and Inder Bhateja wereshot dead, despite having been given state police protection. Also shot dead in 1990 were gangster Anna Shetty,
and rickshaw union leader and bodyguard of Rajwani, Maruti Jadhav, both of whom were
affiliated with the Gopal Rajwani gang. Jadhav in his dying declaration, as well as another person who was injured in the revolver attack, identified Pappu Kalani personally, and he would later be refused bail in
this murder case.
In 1990, when Pappu Kalani was formally named in some of these murders, he was expelled from the Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
party.
In 1992, when the clean-imaged Sudhakarrao Naik
Sudhakarrao Naik
Sudhakarrao Rajusing Naik was an Indian politician who served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 25 June 1991 until 22 February 1993...
took over as Chief
Minister from Sharad Pawar
Sharad Pawar
Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar , popularly known as SAHEB , is the president of the Nationalist Congress Party which he founded in 1999, after separating from the Indian National Congress...
,
he launched a drive against criminal-politicians. Media pressure increased tremendously after the September 1992 shootout where Dawood Ibrahim
Dawood Ibrahim
Dawood Ibrahim , also known as Dawood Ebrahim, and Sheikh Dawood Hassan, is the head of the organized crime syndicate [[D-Company]] in Mumbai. He is currently on the wanted list of Interpol for organised crime and counterfeiting. He was No. 4 on the Forbes' World's Top 10 most dreaded criminals...
's gang killed Shailesh Haldankar of the Arun Gawli
Arun Gawli
Arun Gulab Gawli , known to his followers as "Daddy", is an alleged criminal turned politician from Mumbai, India. He is based at Dagdi Chawl in Byculla- Saat Rasta, Mumbai...
gang as well as several on-duty policemen at Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
's JJ Hospital. Thereafter,
Pappu Kalani, along with Bhai Thakur, brother of politician-ganglord Hitendra Thakur
Hitendra Thakur
Hitendra Thakur is an Indian politician from Virar, Maharashtra, India. He is the president of Bahujan Vikas Aaghadi, a political party in the Vasai-Virar region of Maharashtra, India.. He and his brother Jayendra are accused of being leaders of the underworld in the Vasai-Virar suburb of Mumbai...
, were arrested in November 1992, along with some others gangsters. Pappu was charged with
the gang murders from 1990 and with the JJ Hospital shootout-ably executed by D-Company's Shyam Kishore Garikapatti alias "Black Scorpion"; a total of 19 cases were filed against him.
He was jailed under
the repressive Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act, commonly known as TADA, was an Indian law active between 1985 and 1995 for the prevention of terrorist activities in Punjab. It came into effect on 23 May 1985. It was renewed in 1989, 1991 and 1993 before being allowed to lapse in 1995 due to increasing...
, which
permitted imprisonment for "terrorists" even
without trial. Several appeals against his incarceration failed – the court
found him sufficiently implicated in the Maruti Jadhav murder to label him as
a level "A" terrorist, and bail was repeatedly denied. However, TADA laws were found inappropriate in some other charges –
particularly for both the Bhateja murders, and also
in the JJ Hospital shootout case, which were transferred to a sessions court. However, none of these cases progressed to trial.
Altogether, he spent nine years in jail under TADA before being eventually released on
bail in 2002.
At one point, Sudhakarrao made a statement that the state leader of Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
party and erstwhile Chief Minister Sharad Pawar
Sharad Pawar
Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar , popularly known as SAHEB , is the president of the Nationalist Congress Party which he founded in 1999, after separating from the Indian National Congress...
, had asked him to
"go easy on Pappu Kalani".
At another time,
Chief Minister Manohar Joshi
Manohar Joshi
Manohar Gajanan Joshi, is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He is one of the prominent leaders of the Shiv Sena political party. He was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1995–1999.-Background and family:...
of Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena , is a political party in India founded on 19 June 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray. It is currently headed by Thackeray's son, Uddhav Thackeray...
announced his
intention to prosecute criminal-politicians, but political realities ensured that nothing much was done.
Under Indian law
Indian law
Law of India refers to the system of law in modern India. It is largely based on English common law because of the long period of British colonial influence during the period of the British Raj. Much of contemporary Indian law shows substantial European and American influence. Various legislation...
, someone who has not been sentenced to more
than two years for a crime cannot be considered guilty of a major crime and
is free to
fight elections. Thus, despite being in jail, Kalani kept fighting
and winning the assembly seat from Ulhasnagar, partly because of the
family's muscle, but also because in his first term, Kalani had worked
to improve the roads and the water supply.
In 1999, when his mentor Sharad Pawar
Sharad Pawar
Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar , popularly known as SAHEB , is the president of the Nationalist Congress Party which he founded in 1999, after separating from the Indian National Congress...
formed the National Congress Party
National Congress Party
National Congress Party may refer to:* National Congress, the dominant political party of Sudan* National Congress Party * Nationalist Congress Party of India...
, Pappu
also joined it. However, mounting public pressure proved disruptive for the
nascent party and he was forced to resign. At this time, he handed over the Municipal
corporation to his wife Jyoti Kalani, who would also soon be arrested on
charges
of forgery, non-payment of revenue and illegal liquor manufacturing.
Rajwani murder
Meanwhile, in January 2000, arch rival Gopal Rajwani was shot dead in a hailof bullets as he was coming out of a car at the magistrate's court to attend
a case. It was widely believed that Pappu Kalani, at the time still in jail,
may have masterminded it.
Immediately after his release from jail in 2001, several cases arose where he
allegedly tried to intimidate one Bhoir family, part of whose land had been illegally encroached upon to build the Seema Holiday Home (since demolished) owned by the Kalanis, and also the shopowner Ramesh Rohra.
In 2004, Pappu Kalani again won the assembly elections, as a candidate of the
Republican Party of India (Athavale). His wife however,
continues to be with the National Congress Party
National Congress Party
National Congress Party may refer to:* National Congress, the dominant political party of Sudan* National Congress Party * Nationalist Congress Party of India...
.
In 2005, the Bombay High Court ordered the demolition of 855 illegal
structures in Ulhasnagar, Pappu Kalani, a large part of whose extortion money depended on
permitting illegal constructions, passed a law permitting most of them to be
legalized. However, many structures did not even pay the legalization fees, and
large scale demolitions were launched in Ulhasnagar for most of 2006.
In the municipal elections of 2007, despite very little electioneering by
opposing groups, Pappu Kalani's group mustered only 15 seats (out of 76),
and it is thought that the influence of musclepower may have waned
considerably in Ulhasnagar.
Family
Pappu Kalani's wife Jyoti Kalani emerged on her own during the years when hewas out of power or in prison, becoming the president (mayor) of the powerful Ulhasnagar
Municipal Council. In recent years, she too faced several charges of intimidation and forgery, and lost the 2007 municipal elections. His son
Omi Kalani has been named in several extortion and assault cases in 2005, and he also has a daughter Seema.
In 2004, his brother Narayan Kalani was arrested for three murders dating back to the
internecine gang warfare of 1990.