'Indira Gandhi-Karim Lala' controversy: ‘Bal Thackeray was good friend of underworld don Haji Mastan’
From the 1960s to early 1980s, Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, and Varadarajan Mudaliar were the three top underworld dons of Mumbai.
File picture: Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray | Photo Credit: BCCL
Key Highlights
- Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had alleged a link between late prime minister Indira Gandhi and underworld don Karim Lala
- Earlier today, Sanjay Raut retracted his remarks
- Haji Mastan Mirza had died from a cardiac arrest at the Mumbai's Breach Candy hospital in 1994
Mumbai: Amid the raging row over Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut's remark alleging a link between late prime minister Indira Gandhi and underworld don Karim Lala, the 'adopted son' of don Haji Mastan on Thursday claimed that late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray was a friend of his father, says ANI. However, as per a July 2017 report in The Indian Express, a Mumbai court had ruled that Sundar Shekhar is not the adopted son of Haji Mastan and in an order passed that time, "...has also permanently restrained Shekhar from projecting himself as the adopted son of Haji Mastan." As per the IE report, a suit was filed by the three daughters of Mastan (named Shamshad, Kamrunnisa and Mehrunnisa) seeking a declaration of Shekhar as "not an adopted son of Mastan".
The ANI report cites Shekhar as saying: “Sanjay Raut is right. Indira Gandhi used to meet him (Karim Lala). Many other leaders also used to visit. Haji Mastan was a businessman. Balasaheb Thackeray too was a good friend of Haji Mastan."
Haji Mastan Mirza had died from a cardiac arrest at the Mumbai's Breach Candy hospital in 1994. He was 68. Mastan had quit the underworld in his later years and lived as a businessman and philanthropist.
Speaking in Pune on Wednesday, Sanjay Raut had alleged: "There were days when the likes of Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, Chhota Shakeel, Sharad Shetty decided on who would be the Commissioner of Police of Mumbai or who would sit in Mantralaya...When Karim Lala used to come to Mantralaya, the 'entire' Mantralaya would come down to meet him... We have seen that 'underworld', now it is just 'chillar' (insignificant)."
Notably, Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, and Varadarajan Mudaliar were the three top underworld dons of Mumbai from the sixties to the early eighties.
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Earlier today, Sanjay Raut retracted his remarks.
"I did not say anything to damage Indira Gandhi's image... I have the greatest regard for her...However, if my comments have hurt peoples' sentiments, I am taking them back," Raut told the media.
His remark had caused a stir within the two-month-old Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress' Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance government in Maharashtra.
Raut, a former scribe and crime reporter in Mumbai, had also claimed that he had conducted a photo session for Dawood and others once.
His remarks did no go down well with the Congress leaders, who had asked him to retract his statement.
"Those who indulge in such fake propaganda about former PM Indira Gandhi will have to repent...He must withdraw his statements immediately," ex-Mumbai Congress president and former MP Sanjay Nirupam had said.
"Indiraji was a true patriot, who never compromised on national security. I demand that Sanjay Raut withdraw his ill-informed statement. Political leaders must show restraint before distorting the legacies of deceased Prime Ministers," said former city party chief and ex-union minister Milind M Deora.