Murder of Sagar Ladkat

The Murder of Sagar Ladkat was a gangland assassination carried out on the night of 22 May 1998, in which the Pune businessman and petrol pump owner was intercepted by members of the Fazal-ur-Rehman gang, hacked to death in Kondhwa, and his mutilated body abandoned in his own car. Investigations later revealed that Archana Sharma, the notorious female gangster and companion of Babloo Srivastav, had masterminded the crime, although the motive for the killing remained unconfirmed. The murder stands as a stark example of how women in the Mumbai underworld could orchestrate lethal violence from behind the scenes, using male associates as their instruments.

The Victim and the Circumstances

Sagar Ladkat was a Pune businessman who owned a petrol pump on Somwar Peth. On the night of 22 May 1998, he was returning to his house in Koregaon Park when members of the Fazal-ur-Rehman gang intercepted his car. The gang members whisked him away to Kondhwa, a suburb on the outskirts of Pune, where they hacked him to death. His mutilated body was then abandoned in his car, a brutal signature that left little doubt about the violent world that had claimed him. The attack bore the hallmarks of a planned abduction rather than a spontaneous act of violence, as the gang had clearly positioned themselves to intercept Ladkat on his route home.

The Mastermind Behind the Killing

According to police investigations, the crime had been masterminded by Archana Sharma, a woman whose criminal career had made her notorious for how she used men to get what she wanted. Archana was in a relationship with the gangster Babloo Srivastav, but she had also carried on a brief affair with the kidnapper Fazal-ur-Rehman, alias Fazloo. It was along with Fazal that Archana is said to have plotted the murder of Ladkat. The police concluded that Archana had orchestrated the killing, although it remained unconfirmed why the victim was targeted. This ambiguity surrounding the motive only deepened the sense of menace around Archana, who had already been suspected of involvement in the attempted kidnapping of businessman Babubhai Singhvi in Kutch and the kidnapping of exporter Gautam Adani in Ahmedabad.

Archana's Method and Criminal Career

Archana's role in the Ladkat murder was consistent with the strategy that had kept her out of harm's way throughout her criminal career. Like her mentor Babloo, she chose the target and planned the operation but never participated in the actual act. This division of labour meant that she could direct lethal violence while remaining at a safe distance from the scene of the crime. Her approach had been refined through close shaves with the law. In December 1998, Archana and her gang planned to kidnap another industrialist in Kolkata, but the Uttar Pradesh police got wind of it and tracked them to Park Street in Kolkata. Four gangsters were killed in the shootout, but Archana, who was at a nearby hotel, got away. Within minutes of the shootout, she was on board a plane to Nepal, where she stayed until the situation had calmed down. The police had missed its chance again, and Archana continued to come up with plots to kidnap other businessmen.

The Broader World of the Underworld

The murder of Ladkat took place within a wider ecosystem of organised crime that the book documents across several decades. The gangs that operated in Mumbai and beyond were built on smuggling networks that connected the city to Dubai, Hong Kong, and Aden, as well as to the cross-border smuggling hub of Raxaul in Bihar, where arms, electronic goods, drugs, and fake currency could all be found. Figures like Haji Mastan, who had started as a coolie at the Mumbai docks in 1944 and gone on to make millions from smuggling gold, silver ingots, and electronic goods, exemplified the rags-to-riches trajectory that defined the underworld's most successful operators. The violence of the Ladkat killing also echoed other atrocities documented in the book, from the torture-murder of Sapna, who suffered over twenty-two stab wounds at the hands of Dawood and Shakeel's men, to the encounter killing of Mehmood Khan at Santa Cruz airport, which his widow Ashraf knew to be a lie because he could not have carried a gun past airport security.

The Significance of the Crime

The Murder of Sagar Ladkat is significant not only for its brutality but for what it reveals about the role of women in the Mumbai underworld. Archana Sharma was part of a lineage of women who carved out power in a male-dominated criminal world, from Jenabai Daaruwali, who ran a smuggling operation in grain from Daana Bazaar in the 1940s, to Mahalaxmi Papamani, who built a heroin empire in the Sion-Koliwada slum with a business strategy that turned ten grams of heroin into forty pudis sold at twenty-five rupees each, and Sujata Nikhalje, who used her husband Chhota Rajan's reputation to arm-twist people into selling their homes and built her own construction company, Khushi Developers Private Ltd. Unlike these women, who built economic enterprises, Archana's power lay in her ability to plan and direct lethal violence. The murder of Ladkat, with its unanswered questions about motive, stands as a testament to her capacity to wield that power, and to the shadowy, often unaccountable nature of gangland justice.