Chhota Rajan gang

The Chhota Rajan gang stands as one of the most enduring and feared criminal organizations in Mumbai's underworld, a syndicate that rose from the violent internal politics of the city's mafia to become a rival empire to Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company. Named after its founder Rajan Nikhalje, who earned the title 'Chhota' (small) Rajan to distinguish himself from his mentor Rajan Nair, the gang carved out a territory of extortion, murder, and drug trafficking that stretched from the slums of Tilak Nagar to the international corridors of Dubai and Southeast Asia. Its story is inseparable from the women who sustained it—wives, aides, and financiers who managed its money, protected its leaders, and ran its operations when the men were in hiding or in jail, making the gang a lens through which the book examines the gendered realities of organized crime in India.

Origins and Rise of the Gang

The Chhota Rajan gang's origins lie in the violent underworld of Mumbai's Tilak Nagar neighborhood in the late 1970s. Rajan Nikhalje, a native of Lonar village in Satara, had dropped out of school after Class 5 and joined a group of boys who touted film tickets on the black market in front of Sahakar Cinema. His criminal career began in earnest in 1979 when he took the lead in assaulting police officers of the Tilak Nagar police station who were trying to stop the black marketing of movie tickets. This act brought him into the limelight and led him to join local gangster Rajan Nair, alias Bada (big) Rajan. Following Nair's murder, Rajan decided to step into his mentor's shoes and take over the reins of the gang, which is how he eventually earned the title of Chhota (small) Rajan. Later, he affiliated himself with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, at whose behest he began handling all the activities of the D-gang in Mumbai. This period of alliance with Dawood was crucial to the gang's formation, as it gave Rajan access to the resources and networks of the larger D-Company while he built his own power base.

The Gang's Operations and Criminal Empire

The Chhota Rajan gang's criminal operations were diverse and highly profitable, centered on extortion, murder, and drug trafficking. Members like Ravi Poojary served as Rajan's foot-soldiers in Mumbai, executing the don's day-to-day orders, extorting money from hoteliers and other businessmen across the city. Poojary rose through the ranks to become one of Rajan's favourite protégés, travelling to Dubai and Southeast Asia to carry out his boss's jobs. The gang's reach extended beyond Mumbai's borders, with members operating in international hubs where they managed the don's affairs. The gang's power was such that it generated a 'fear psychosis' among builders and the common masses, a terror that was instrumental in enabling the business ventures of Rajan's wife, Sujata Nikhalje. When Sujata began her own construction company, Khushi Developers Private Ltd, named after her youngest daughter, Rajan's goons would terrorise builders through extortion and land-grabbing, ensuring that her real estate deals went through smoothly. This symbiotic relationship between the gang's violence and legitimate business interests was a hallmark of its operations, allowing the criminal empire to launder its wealth into the formal economy.

Key Members and Associates

The gang's inner circle included a network of loyal operatives and family members who managed its affairs. Sujata Nikhalje, Rajan's wife, was perhaps the most powerful woman associated with the gang. She had fallen in love with Rajan when they lived in the same Tilak Nagar neighborhood, drawn to him by his growing reputation as a prominent gangster. In 1987, within a year of his escape to Dubai to avoid arrest, Rajan called Sujata to Dubai and the couple was married in a special ceremony arranged by Dawood. A photograph taken at the wedding—showing Dawood and his wife Mehjebeen standing beside the newlyweds—was splashed across the Indian media, cementing the public image of the gang's alliance with the D-Company. Sujata went on to become a 'corporate don wife', meeting builders through the day and signing deals worth crores of rupees, while keeping Rajan informed of these meetings via telephone calls. Padma Poojary, the wife of Ravi Poojary, was another key associate. A middle-class Sikh by birth, Padma only learned about Ravi's criminal activity after marrying him. Lured by the possibility of immense wealth, she chose to stay with him, keeping a low profile and living with their children in a rented flat in the Sher-e-Punjab colony of Andheri. Rubina Siraj Sayyed, a beautician who became one of Shakeel's aides, was also connected to the gang's orbit, though her primary allegiance was to the rival Chhota Shakeel gang.

Rivalry with Dawood and the D-Company

The Chhota Rajan gang's most defining feature was its bitter rivalry with Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company, a conflict that reshaped Mumbai's underworld. Rajan had once been Dawood's trusted lieutenant, handling all the activities of the D-gang in Mumbai. However, the relationship soured, and Rajan became Dawood's aide-turned-enemy, establishing his own gang as a rival power. This rivalry was so intense that it was later depicted on celluloid by Bollywood director Ram Gopal Verma in his film Company, which dramatized the relationship between the two don figures. The gang's members were drawn into this conflict, with figures like Ravi Poojary joining Rajan's gang in the mid-'90s when Rajan was trying to establish a strong base in Mumbai's crime scene. The rivalry also had deadly consequences for those caught in the crossfire, as seen in the fate of advocate Shahid Azmi, who fought Rubina's case and years later, in February 2010, fell victim to a former shooter of the Chhota Rajan gang. The gang's enmity with Dawood's empire was a defining feature of Mumbai's gang wars, shaping the city's criminal landscape for decades.

The Gang's Women and Their Roles

The Chhota Rajan gang's story is inseparable from the women who sustained it, a fact that the book highlights as central to understanding the gendered dynamics of organized crime. Sujata Nikhalje's role was particularly significant: she ran the gang's financial affairs, managed its real estate investments, and protected her husband from the law. According to the police, because of her lack of knowledge in business and finances, Sujata initially worked with a group of consultants to get a clearer picture of her husband's financial stocks and to seek advice on how his businesses could be legitimised. Her advisors zeroed in on Bollywood and the real estate industry, as they were businesses where black money could be invested. However, Sujata's brother-in-law, Deepak Nikhalje, had recently been hit by allegations of using his brother's money to fund a film. In 1999, he had produced the Hindi film Vaastav, starring actor Sanjay Dutt. When Vaastav became a hit, the media raised a hue and cry as they thought that Deepak was a front for his gangster brother. This storm deterred Sujata from investing in films, so she went for the other option—real estate. The gang's women were not mere bystanders but active participants who managed its money, ran its businesses, and protected its leaders, challenging the simplistic view of women as passive victims of male criminality.

Decline and Legacy

The Chhota Rajan gang's power eventually waned, though its legacy endures in Mumbai's criminal history. The police, who had been tapping Sujata's phone lines, learned that her conversations with Rajan would often drift into the acquisition of land and deals. Sensing that something was up, the police decided to close in on her. At the same time, one of the builders from a society in Chembur who had been threatened by Rajan's gang in a building contract deal filed a complaint with the police, providing the much-needed impetus for their case. This led to Sujata's arrest under MCOCA, a blow to the gang's operations. The gang's decline was also marked by the fates of its associates: Rubina, after completing her five-year term in jail, was left with nothing, her parlour business shut down and her political dreams unrealized. The once well-known beautician and Shakeel aide was far from being the underworld's favourite Pathani heroine anymore, hard-pressed to even be deemed an extra. The Chhota Rajan gang's story, as told through its women, reveals the complex interplay of crime, gender, and power in Mumbai's underworld, a world where women pushed the boundaries of dominant moral codes and carved out their own spaces of agency and survival.