Ashwin Naik

Ashwin Naik occupies a singular place in the chronicle of Mumbai's underworld: he was the first educationally qualified gangster in the city's mafia circuit, a man whose entry into crime was not born of poverty or desperation but of persuasion, and whose most infamous act was the murder of the very woman who had pushed him into that world. His story, told largely through the lens of his wife Neeta Naik's own words and the police records that followed her death, is a study in how domestic ambition, political power, and criminal violence could become so entangled that they destroyed each other.

Identity and Background

Ashwin was an electronics graduate living in Byculla, a man of education in a world where such qualifications were rare. His wife, Neeta Naik, was the driving force of the household—a strong-willed politician and commanding civic corporator who lived in a gaudily furnished tenement at No. 144 at Subashnagar in Byculla. In a 1997 interview, Neeta described her devotion in terms that would later prove tragically ironic: 'I breathe Ashwin. I don't need food or water to survive; only my fond memories of him.' The couple were remembered as a fairytale romance, two people who had both loved and lived dangerously, with Neeta's large sunken eyes and impossibly high cheekbones drawing comparisons to Hollywood actor Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Entry into the Underworld

Ashwin's descent into crime was catalyzed by a specific act of violence. On his way back home from the Santa Cruz airport in Mumbai, his car was attacked by members of the Chhota Rajan gang. Around twenty men opened fire on his car on the Kherwadi highway, throwing the area into panic and chaos. Neeta and her father-in-law were in another car behind his. Knowing that her husband was unarmed, Neeta stopped her own car, got out, and began screaming, hoping that someone would call the police. Ashwin managed to dodge the bullets and make an unlikely escape. It was then that Neeta knew her husband was unsafe. She told him she wanted him alive and not dead, and for this, she did not mind if he had to join hands with his own brother and become part of the crime syndicate. After much persuasion from his wife, Ashwin finally gave in and joined the underworld, becoming the first educationally qualified gangster in Mumbai's mafia circuit.

Criminal Career and Partnership with Neeta

Over time, Ashwin became known for his meticulous planning and organisational abilities, qualities that set him apart from the more brutish figures of the underworld. People still remembered him for the killing of Tanya Koli in a Kalyan local train and the murder of textile tycoon Sunit Khatau in Mahalaxmi. He was later arrested under TADA, but this did not deter him. After Chhota Rajan's split from Dawood, Ashwin became an ally of the latter and was thus able to build a strong criminal base for himself. All along, Neeta remained his pillar of support; she was his close confidante and personal advisor. The first cracks in their marriage developed early in 1992, when, much against her husband's wishes, Neeta decided to join Bal Thackeray's Shiv Sena and stand for municipal elections. Though Neeta considered politics a 'dirty business', she wanted to carve out an identity of her own; she was also aware of the possibility of her political clout being used to legitimise her husband's activities. It came as no surprise when she won the elections by a huge majority. Later, she attributed the win to her husband, as she knew that people voted for her because they feared her husband. But she was determined to be an efficient corporator and earn herself a good name. She now began to live a double life—as a politician and as a gangster's wife.

Murder of Neeta and Aftermath

On 13 November 2000, Neeta arrived at her Byculla home around noon. As she got to the door and was unlocking it, two men—identified as Manoj Bhalekar and Sunil Jadhav—brutally gunned her down. Neeta was rushed to KEM Hospital in Parel where she succumbed to her injuries a day later. The following day, the media was filled with stories of Neeta's murder. Her liaisons with other men were ascribed as the cause for her tragic end. Unfortunately, this end was said to have come at the hands of her own husband, the very person she had encouraged into the world of crime. Ashwin, who apparently suspected his wife of infidelity, allegedly had her killed by his henchmen. After Neeta's murder, five persons were arrested but two of them were later acquitted. Three others—Bhalekar, Nilratan Mukherjee and Jadhav—were convicted. Jadhav was later killed in an encounter. Based on the confessions of Bhalekar and Mukherjee, Ashwin, who was already behind bars, was charged under the special MCOCA for the murder of his wife. According to police records, the conspiracy was hatched by the gangster while inside Tihar jail.

Trial and Acquittal

On 31 January 2009, a special MCOCA court acquitted Ashwin of his wife's murder for lack of evidence. The Ashwin-Neeta love story that had turned sour was finally shut for good. The acquittal marked the end of a legal saga that had begun with the confessions of his co-conspirators and concluded with the court finding insufficient grounds to convict him. The outcome left the murder of Neeta Naik—the woman who had convinced and encouraged her electronics graduate husband to join the underworld, who had stood by him as his pillar of support, and who had been gunned down outside her own home—without a definitive judicial resolution. Ashwin's story thus closed not with a conviction but with the ambiguous silence of the law, a fitting end for a man whose entire career had been built on meticulous planning and the careful avoidance of consequences.