Dawood kept a track of Sautya’s movements and then tipped off the police, who caught Sautya red-handed with extortion money. After his arrest, Dawood sent Sharad Shetty, alias Anna, who was a Dawood acolyte and also Sautya’s friend, to bail him out. Sautya was overwhelmed by Sharad Shetty’s kindness, not knowing that he had perfectly landed in the net that Dawood had pitched for him. And so Dawood won over the dauntless youth from Girgaum and Sautya jumped ships from the Amar Naik gang to the D-gang.

  After the initial welcome-aboard party, Dawood wasted no time in testing Sautya. He was tasked with two eliminations. Both men, Chennu and Pappu, were from Dawood’s bête noire, the Pathan gang. Sautya wanted to prove his worth so he enhanced his challenge by stacking another plate on the barbell. He told Dawood that he would liquidate Chennu and Pappu on their own turf—in Nagpada in central Mumbai.

  For the job, he was paired with another new recruit, Anil Parab, a wasted youth reeling from a lot of complexities both in the mind and body.

  Sautya and Parab set off on a bike. The Pathan duo was usually seen in the busy market areas of Nagpada, and therefore easy to find. Parab skidded to a stop right in front of their stunned faces and, in a quick motion, Sautya pulled out his revolver and shot at the men. He dispatched quick rounds of bullets into their bodies, killing both Chennu and Pappu on the spot.

  Sautya was on cloud nine. He had proved his mettle in the new gang. He was now the D-Company’s favourite hitman.

  The Dholakia Brothers

  In 1987 and 1988, the mafia wars in Mumbai played out like a Western movie. The transition from the older era to the younger era of dons was marked by violence, bloodshed, and murders of rival gang members in broad daylight. The tumult in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka was a boon for the mafia as they upgraded their Colts for lethal AK-47s.

  Dawood Ibrahim was, of course, the master puppeteer, and he was slowly eliminating other players. Among the big players dabbling in both the mafia and supposedly legitimate businesses were the Dholakia brothers—Arvind Dholakia and Mahesh Dholakia.

  Arvind had been small fry in the Sopariwala gang and was first arrested on the charge of smuggling in 1974. He was released along with Haji Mastan and Yusuf Patel under an amnesty scheme for smugglers. In the ’80s, the brothers grabbed a lot of eyeballs after they emerged as the frontrunners in the real estate business. A couple of restaurants and hotels (Slip Disc, Caesar’s Palace, Fisherman’s Wharf) that had gained notoriety as organized prostitution joints further cemented the reputation of the brothers. After Sonia Mahal, Caesar’s Palace was the precursor to the beer bar dancing hotels in Mumbai. The brothers were arrested again in 1985 under the National Security Act (NSA), but released after two months. Arvind Dholakia had been in and out of the city police records since 1979 with seven cases of rioting and murder filed against him.

  The rise to power and glory is often a steep climb and the Dholakia brothers were in danger of tripping when they chose to cross paths with Dawood Ibrahim. Dawood did not like the Dholakia brothers. And neither did other gangsters like Bada Rajan. Arvind and Mahesh were emerging as a powerful force in the lucrative real estate scene and the flesh-trade. For the mafia, this was exactly in conflict with their interests. The mafia didn’t like the Dholakias eating into their market share. When the brothers began to feel the heat, they lost no time in aligning themselves with the mafia, including Arun Gawli, to fund their activities. Unlike other businessmen, the Dholakias were not just funding the mafia, they were actively part of the mafia. Dawood decided to eliminate them before they became too big for their boots.

  For Dawood and Chhota Rajan, Sautya was the go-to man to finish Mahesh Dholakia. In April 1987, Mahesh Dholakia emerged in a Maruti car from his Pedder Road residence and immediately noticed the tail. Six men were crammed in the car and their malevolence was manifest even without a single threatening gesture. He immediately took a left turn, abandoned his car, and ran into a building, fear writ large on his face. Death was knocking at the door and his legs were trembling. His hands were clammy and his heart was pounding so loud, he thought even his killers could hear the deafening thud. His eyes were big orbs of fear. The killers followed him in. They were not running. They walked behind him and shot him in the leg and, as he lay bleeding, terror-struck, in front of a private garage, Sautya came very close to him and, at pointblank range, silenced the thudding heart and head.

  Arvind Dholakia swore revenge on the funeral pyre of his brother. He egged the police on for action against Dawood by constantly squealing about his activities. He even sponsored Arun Gawli for a while, but it is said that it was Gawli—for extortion reasons—who was behind Arvind Dholakia’s death in his own cabin at Caesar’s Palace, one year after the younger brother was killed.

  You cannot play cat and mouse with Dawood and expect to emerge unscathed. The Dholakia brothers came in a whiff and went off in a puff.

  Scourge for Gawli

  In the fall of 1988, the underworld struck out at each other like mad men on a chess board. Only the best would live to see the rising sun again. This war was ignited not by the constant bloodied rage of gang culture, but by an incident that changed the course of history for the top two gangs of Mumbai. The Mumbai police were at their wits’ end but also happy that the gangs were at each other’s throats—the hope was that each would decimate the other and make their job much easier.

  Satish Raje, a close aide of Dawood who also looked after his accounts and properties in India, was gunned down by Gawli’s aide Ashok Joshi. Dawood retaliated by asking Sautya to kill Joshi. Sautya gunned down Joshi near Panvel. Over the next few weeks, both ganglords continued hitting out at each other’s close aides. By now, Sautya had killed many men. And, he said, if he had to, he’d do it all over again. After every killing, Sautya slept like a baby—there was a surprising amount of physical exertion in murder. Sautya had turned killing into his passion, becoming more ruthless and bloodthirsty with every passing day. It was clear that he had now made many more enemies, and also got the police desperate to catch or kill him. Dawood realized it was important to take Sautya out of the game for a while and introduce a new face when he was gone. That was the entry point for Subhash Singh Thakur, alias ST, into the underworld.

  When Sautya returned, he was given the option to choose his own partner in crime. It came as a surprise to everyone when he chose ST.

  Thakur hailed from a farmer family from Uttar Pradesh, but was a Mumbai man for all practical purposes. Unlike everyone else in the D-Company, ST had not chosen to be in the mafia until the time he was forced to. For months, ST would be dragged to jail, detained and beaten up under false claims. The police was under tremendous pressure to arrest gangsters and fill jail cells, and when unable to do so, they would pick innocent men like ST and lash at them. ST bore the brunt of this for months, until he decided to become the gangster that he was accused of being. The criminals in jail had turned ST into one himself. ST got in touch with Chhota Rajan, who employed ST as Sautya’s aide. Sautya decided to exploit ST’s rage against the system to the advantage of the D-Company. The two of them began to work very closely and acquired an unbeatable reputation as a team.

  In the early ’90s, Sautya and ST were as savage as they were fearless. Word reached Sautya that Arun Gawli was plotting to kill him and Chhota Rajan. In an act of utter defiance and mockery of the don, Sautya and ST went to Dagdi Chawl, otherwise known as Gawli’s headquarters, and opened fire at the gates of the chawl. It was an open challenge posed to Arun Gawli. Chhota Rajan had by then already escaped to Dubai, and Sautya left for Nepal shortly after. Once settled in Kathmandu, Sautya then called for ST to join him. Sautya was the first D-gang member to set up base in Nepal, which not only turned into a hideout point for him, but also an important business centre.

  U-Turn for U-Nita

  Like every great story of every great warrior, the lady love either wins him the battle, or drives him to his death. With Sautya, the tale took a slow and dramatic turn towards the inevitable fall.

  With his growing fame as a feared gangster, women and wine had slowly become Sautya’s weaknesses. ST did not approve of this but stood by as a helpless spectator to it all anyway. Sautya had fallen in love. And the lady in question was his best friend Pappi Shirshekar’s wife, Unita. She had come to Sautya seeking help for her imprisoned husband. ST warned Sautya against setting his eyes on a married woman, let alone his best friend’s wife. This was the first breaking point in the relationship. ST was old-school, old-world values. He was into crime but he was also religious and drew the moral line on many vices.

  But Sautya was smitten with Unita. He was determined to win her at any cost. Soon their distress meetings turned into furtive love encounters. The couple was so madly engrossed in each other that they didn’t mind eliminating any hurdle that stood in their way. Including Unita’s husband and Sautya’s best friend.

  Sautya arranged for Shirshekar to be released from jail only to have him killed. Witnesses were bought and top lawyers were hired. Soon Shirshekar was released from jail. It became difficult for Sautya and Unita to meet around Shirshekar, so Sautya arranged to have him murdered immediately. Sautya started taking Shirshekar out for drinks and was publically spotted with him. The duo looked like two old friends who were inseparable. One day, Sautya sent two of his friends to invite Shirshekar for drinks. At the bar, an unidentified man approached the three men and emptied a round of bullets in Shirshekar’s chest. Nobody suspected Sautya and the blame was placed on the Gawli gang.

  Sautya then offered help and support to Shirshekar’s widow Unita, who happily accepted it. From a helpless widow to a gangster’s lover, Unita transformed overnight. She began travelling to Kathmandu with Sautya and enjoyed the callous killings that he carried out. The other gang members, especially ST, despised Unita but kept their contempt to themselves. Sautya’s undivided attention to Unita distanced him from his gang members. Sautya had begun to break his own rules and let Unita call the shots. ST tried to reason with Sautya, but in vain. This irked ST, who then began to distance himself from Sautya. Their friendship lay on the line for months, until it finally faded away. Their famous alliance was headed for a clear split.

  Sautya and Unita got married shortly after. Sautya would always ask Unita to join him whenever he was out on a mission. He used her as a cover to evade cops who had set up nakabandi on the drive from Juhu to Pydhonie in south Mumbai. He would drive with Unita as the police generally don’t stop couples in private cars.

  But a few years later, Sautya lost interest in Unita and began moving around with other women. He also fell in love with a lady named Raziya and eventually married her too. If the police forces are to be believed, in the years to come it would be Sautya’s scorned wife Unita who would help Rajan kill Sautya.

  Meanwhile, while Sautya was busy romancing women, ST channelized his energy and efforts into becoming the best shooter that the D-Company ever had. His killing instincts became so sharp, that he managed to catch the attention of none other than the don himself, Dawood Ibrahim. ST became one of the very few gang members who were invited to Dawood’s house in Dubai to meet him personally. Following which, ST began taking direct orders from Dawood. This did not go down well with any gang member, especially Sautya and Rajan. ST was turning into an asset for the D-Company. He was very focused. He was loyal. He didn’t get swayed by women. He didn’t wallow in the violence. He did his executions with the precision of a surgeon but didn’t dwell on them. He was not flamboyant and he didn’t throw his weight around. Unlike Sautya, he came from a humble background.

  ST resided in a palatial bungalow in Kathmandu with Sautya. It was a safe hideout for most of Dawood’s men. At this time, Chhota Rajan, formerly Dawood’s favourite, had begun to feel his position in the D-Company was being threatened. Dawood seemed to be giving more preference and importance to both ST and Sautya, which was making Rajan more bitter by the day.

  In what is regarded as one of the most sensational crimes in the history of the underworld, ST and Sautya had killed Shailesh Haldankar and Bipin Shere in the J J shootout in Mumbai in 1992. The duo had executed the public killing to avenge the death of Dawood’s brother-in-law, Ibrahim Parker. Following the J J shootout, the police force of the entire country galvanized into action and began hunting Dawood’s two most ferocious hitmen. The police had begun to zero-in on any information of the whereabouts of Sautya. They got a lot of leads from none other than Sautya’s jilted ex-wife Unita, who squealed about his hideouts and dens. Sautya narrowly escaped being arrested twice but his associates were caught. The police nabbed both Gonde and ST from different hideouts and seized all of their belongings. They also froze all Sautya’s financial accounts and raided his properties. For the first time in two decades, it became difficult for Sautya to survive in his own city. After ST’s arrest, Sautya was considerably weakened and beginning to get nervous, and nervousness was such an alien emotion to him. The police grip was tighteninng on him and his men, and his hideouts were being raided one after another.

  It was around this time that the Crime Branch carried out elaborate raids, desperately trying to finish the D-Company once and for all. In another sensational shootout, the police forces, led by Additional Commissioner Aftab Ahmed Khan, gunned down the infamous Maya Dolas and his three associates in Andheri. Dawood was slowly losing his gems and Sautya had finally begun to fear for his own life.

  The shootout at Lokhandwala in which Maya Dolas was killed could have been his own story, Sautya confided to his close aide Manish Lala. Lala looked after the legitimization of Sautya’s properties in Mumbai. Once, while travelling in his car from Fort to Powai, Lala narrated the whole story of Sautya to Hussain Zaidi and me in detail.

  Sautya wanted to live. With all his men either killed or jailed, Sautya knew he had no choice but to escape. He first absconded to Kathmandu and then headed to Dubai. The turn of events marked a significant change in the history of the underworld. The famous partnership between the killing machines, ST and Sautya had finally come to an end. Sautya neither wanted to get arrested like his crony ST nor did he want to get killed like Maya Dolas. He felt Dubai would be the only safe place for him.

  Death Awaited in Dubai

  Sautya had converted to Islam in 1995, after arriving in Dubai, and changed his name to Sulaiman. Two decades had passed since he had first washed blood from his hands at the age of sixteen. Countless murders, innumerable affairs and the quintessential life as a hitman of the D-Company had taken its toll. He was now thinking big. He had left India happily for a better and luxurious life in Dubai and closer proximity to his boss Dawood Ibrahim. However, amidst his otherwise smooth move, a dagger of danger was hanging over Sulaiman’s head. Chhota Rajan had not forgotten Sautya’s political games and the way he had upstaged him and got closer to Dawood. Sautya had also killed his trusted men in Nepal. Rajan had already split with Dawood and his primary targets were Chhota Shakeel and Sautya.

  At the same time, Sautya, now Sulaiman, was hatching his own plans of killing Rajan. He became close friends with Chhota Shakeel, who handled the business syndicates of Dawood in Dubai. The two men were preparing for a battle in their own dens and bloodshed was inevitable. Suddenly, the yacht jerked violently and Sulaiman’s reverie was broken.

  Sulaiman shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He told the boy in the white shirt it was the sea sickness that was making him uncomfortable and asked for his drink to be refilled. Sulaiman also sent the lady away. He knew Rajan would make a move. He just had to make his move before Rajan did. The yacht would dock at the Dubai harbour, and a car would take him straight to Dawood. The idea of being closer to Dawood filled Sulaiman with a sense of calm. He closed his eyes and breathed in the ocean air.

  When he reached Dubai, he felt safer from police and his other enemies including Rajan.

  For months nothing happened. The two bigwigs of the D-Company lay low and were seemingly occupied with their own business. One day, on 5 August 1995, Sulaiman was out hunting for places to set up his establishment in Deira in Dubai. He told his driver to cut the trip short and head back to the hotel instead. When the car arrived at their hotel, Toofan, Sautya and his Nepalese bodyguard stepped out and headed towards the reception. Just then Sautya heard the loud screech of a car suddenly stop right behind them. He turned around to see four men armed with guns and choppers heading straight towards him. Sautya was unprepared and ambushed.

  Without a single word muttered, the men opened fire in Sulaiman’s direction. Sulaiman tried to dodge the bullets and stumbled behind his guards. Two bullets had pierced Sulaiman body while he limped for cover. Sautya yelled for his guards to retaliate and fight the assailants. He dragged himself with all his might and began to run away from the men. The men fired more shots. Sulaiman somehow managed to dodge these bullets, limping and running towards the street, screaming in pain and begging for his life. The four men began to chase Sulaiman. In his feeble last attempts to save himself, Sulaiman almost ran into a pole and collapsed to the ground. He tried to cover his profusely bleeding wounds and challenged the men to fight without arms.

  His assailants looked at Sulaiman and smirked. The ever-fearless Sulaiman was on the ground pleading to fight for his life. One assailant walked up behind Sulaiman and slashed his throat, while another fired continuous rounds of bullets at his head. Sulaiman breathed his last, falling back into a pool of his own blood.