Bollywood, politics and the underworld. Sounds like a puzzle? Not quite. If the investigative agencies are to be believed, it’s just the opposite. In fact, after decades of cheek-by-jowl existence, much like life in Dharavi, these apparently independent pieces of the jigsaw are now inextricably interlinked, with narcotics the thread binding them together, as the drug dragnet strengthens and spreads its tentacles across Maharashtra, particularly Mumbai.
Sources from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) claim Maharashtra tops the list of cocaine users and Mumbai is the capital of the cocaine trade. According to the sources, authorities manage to seize less than six per cent of the drugs headed for Mumbai. Pune, Thane, Aurangabad and some districts in the Konkan belt have become lucrative markets for drug peddlers, the sources claim. “The end users are as young as 10 and as old as 75 years old,” says another source.
Mumbai’s emergence as the cocaine capital is due to the fact that Latin American cartels are shifting their bases to India. Mumbai is a natural choice due to its connectivity by sea, air and roads, and the presence of Bollywood. The dark underbelly of Maximum City is also flush with heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine (also known as meth, MD or meow). Mumbai’s street drug scene, which, until recently, was covert, is now operating overtly, without fear of government enforcement agencies.
“People from all walks of life are paying big money to illegally buy street drugs,” says a source in the Enforcement Directorate (ED), who is involved in narcotics seizures. “The multi-tier system of peddling is difficult to bust. It is very sophisticated, and the drug peddler on the street is usually clueless about the supply chain.”
Aryan Khan in custody
Meth is a powerful synthetic drug that can be made in kitchens, using a stove and a few household ingredients. Known as the “pressure cooker” drug, it gives an immediate “high” to the user. A sizeable section of the glamour world is allegedly addicted to such “uppers”, which act as mood lifters.
A Bollywood insider says he knows actors who sniff, snort or smoke heroin mixed with crack cocaine. Known as “speedballing”, this is popular in Bollywood’s tight-knit home party scene. “Post-Covid, parties are mostly organised at home, among very close friends. After NCB started chasing Hindi film people, they have become very careful with their invites. The word ‘party’ has been replaced with ‘dinner’. But after what has happened to Shah Rukh Khan, the groups are getting tighter still,” says the source.
With cash flow slowing down or stalling due to film projects grounded by Covid, even some Bollywood people, including actors, directors and producers, are reportedly peddling narcotics, says the ED source. “But NCB’s posturing is more to build their image in the media, rather than tackling the issue seriously. Even ED does seizures and has raided some big names, but we don’t go public with these. If an agency is serious about tackling the problem, they should build an informant network, instead of using affiliates of political parties,” says the source, referring to the arrest of Aryan Khan.
Aryan Khan, Shah Rukh Khan’s 23-year-old son, was detained along with seven others on the night of October 2 after the NCB busted an alleged ‘rave party’ aboard a Mumbai-Goa cruise ship. He was arrested the next day under sections 8C, 20B, 27 and 35 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Aryan was sent to judicial custody at Arthur Road Jail, Mumbai, on October 7, and a special NDPS court rejected his bail application on October 20. Besides Aryan, 12 people have been arrested in the case so far.
“Bollywood, politicians, underworld and drugs are closely connected. They co-exist and need each other,” says Vinita Deshmukh, a Pune-based RTI activist. A former journalist, Deshmukh has studied the drug scene in Pune since the early 1990s, when the godman, Rajneesh, landed there and drugs followed. “But the present-day expansion is mind-boggling,” says Deshmukh.
Lawyer and former IPS officer Y.P. Singh says, “Where there is luxury, there will be indulgence. There’s so much money coming in that the next generation is living in luxury and indulgence.” Pointing out that consumers are now becoming peddlers, Singh adds, “Consumers are becoming reference points for their friends. Many of India’s drug enforcers are collaborators, hence the narcotics trade is flourishing.” The narcotics trade works on the stringent “need-to-know basis”, therefore the peddler doesn’t know the backward linkage, he says.
Dawood Ibrahim (centre) with Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel and others
According to a source in Mumbai Crime Branch, the four “As”—availability, affordability, accessibility, attitude—are driving the drug scene. “Mumbai’s street drug scene is a well-oiled system. What is seen on the streets is a small fraction of what’s happening inside slums. So systematic is this trade that it’s difficult to penetrate it. It will always be there because of the blessing of local politicians,” says the source.
With parties across the political spectrum heavily dependent on local strongmen for electoral gains, there is little hope. The underworld, including the elusive Dawood Ibrahim, is said to be using their muscle power to push in heroin from Pakistan and Afghanistan—two countries where the purest form of the drug is available. The local political network plays an important role and is an integral part of the D Company’s drug trade, adds the Crime Branch source.
“Money from drugs is routed into real estate business in Mumbai,” says an ED source. “The underworld has a big presence in the construction industry, film financing and the stock market. Though their money also comes from oil theft and adulteration, cricket betting, bootlegging, gold smuggling, extortion rackets, contract killings and protection money, it’s the narcotics trade that fetches them their biggest gains. Mumbai is their biggest market.”
According to him, the composition of NCB is “weak and its men don’t understand the intricate functioning of the drug economy”. He says NCB is a sought-after posting, hard to get. “Jab politician ka madat loge, toh jaise woh bolenge, wiase hi chalna hoga (When you take the help of politicians, you’ll have to work according to their whims),” says the source.
Y.P. Singh adds, “NCB is supposed to go after the international drug nexus, not dissipate energies on petty cases like those of Aryan Khan or Rhea Chakraborty. In international drug seizure, the performance of NCB is neither stellar nor inspiring. The quantum of seizure of drugs is critical to bust the racket. That’s clearly not the case.”
The underworld is routing its ill-gotten wealth, and heavily investing in slum rehabilitation and redevelopment projects across Mumbai. While in Chembur (in central Mumbai), Chhota Rajan is allegedly operating through his wife Sujata Nikhalje to help builders evict slum dwellers, the Maharashtra government’s ambitious redevelopment plan for Bhindi Bazaar is stuck, as Dawood Ibrahim is ensuring the large population of Muslim residents refuse to move.
The role mafia dons like Dawood and Chhota Shakeel play in influencing important redevelopment schemes in the affluent South Mumbai is common knowledge in political and police circles. Not only have they funded election campaigns of some candidates, they have also got their people installed in various committees of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)—the richest civic body in India. The duo has a stronghold in BMC’s Standing Committee, which is the most sought after posting as it is empowered to clear key infrastructure, construction and redevelopment projects across Mumbai.
Sources say D Company has used local politicians to settle matters in the development of old bungalows in Bandra and Mahim, land deals in Andheri, Jogeshwari and Kurla, and dargah properties across Mumbai. Same is the case in the neighbouring district of Thane, where the Maharashtra government is planning to implement another large slum rehabilitation and redevelopment project. Many local politicians with clout in Thane have reportedly sought help of the underworld to evict the slum dwellers. “After Mumbai, Thane is the biggest hub of narcotics. The Mumbai underworld is operating here through local gangsters,” says a police officer of the Thane Crime Branch.
Sources say the underworld is also running a well-oiled money lending system, wherein they bulldoze their way into projects by offering cash to builders and contractors at interest rates that are much lower than those prevailing in the market. Builders are appointing retired IPS officers and former bureaucrats by offering huge salaries and monetary benefits, to get projects cleared using their departmental contacts. Local politicians are a natural “beneficiary” in these schemes, and are often directly or indirectly connected to the narcotics trade, claim sources.
Rather than being dismantled, the nexus is only getting stronger, say those in the know. “The extent of criminalisation of the police force is possible due to the blessings of their political masters, who in turn enjoy support of the underworld. When they take the help of the underworld, they have to fall in line with the latter’s demands,” says a former police officer who has earned the sobriquet of an “encounter specialist”.
(This appeared in the print edition as "Breaking Bad")
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