Indira met gangster Karim Lala in Mumbai: Sanjay Raut

Pune: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Wednesday claimed that former prime minister Indira Gandhi met former underworld don Karim Lala in Mumbai. Raut made the claim while speaking on the Mumbai underworld of yore, during an interview to the Lokmat media group at its award function here.
Karim Lala was one of the three top underworld dons of Mumbai for over two decades, from the sixties to the early eighties, the other two being Mastan Mirza alias Haji Mastan and Varadarajan Mudaliar. “They (underworld) used to decide who will be Mumbai’s police commissioner and who will sit in Mantralaya (state secretariat),” Raut said. “When (underworld don) Haji Mastan came to Mantralaya, the entire secretariat would come down to see him. Indira Gandhi used to meet Karim Lala in Pydhonie (in south Mumbai),” claimed Raut.
Recalling days of the underworld in Mumbai, Raut said gangsters like Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel and Sharad Shetty used to have control over the metropolis and adjoining areas. “Those were the days of theunderworld. Later, everybody (dons) fled the country. Now there is nothing like that,” the Shiv Sena’s RS member said. (PTI)