Dongri to Dubai by S. Hussain Zaidi Read Free Book Online Page B

chose to function under his name. While he handicapped the intelligence network—as bribes ensured that the informers in the backstreets were kept satisfied—he also ensured that the other end was well oiled. A news report published during the sixties did not shy away from stating on record that ‘constables on the hooch beat made quite a sum. The rate for police protection for the addas [where hooch was sold in public] was Rs 5,000 per adda . Each police station had on an average 75 to 130 addas in its area. For the owners of the addas , the monthly turnover in just one suburban area with five addas is around Rs 50,000 per month’. The economics worked at 10 rupees per glass for diluted hooch, which means anywhere around 1 crore rupees a month.
    He also divided his work area-wise, and let individuals from each local area handle their own business, making the areas more work-efficient while completely eliminating ego hassles. This only furthered healthy competition in upping returns, ensuring no individual or group encroached upon the other’s designated area and distribution network. To maintain the smooth running of his business, he had two trusted lieutenants to look after migrants from Tamil Nadu—Thomas Kurien known as Khaja Bhai and Mohinder Singh Vig known as Bada Soma.
    It was not long before Varda slowly edged out rivals in the trade to the point of achieving a complete monopoly. It was also during these early days that he started getting cheap migrant labour into the city . Slowly, his men started grabbing government land and allocating space to the new entrants for a price and with that, south Indians began to dot the cotton mill-dominated central Bombay of Dadar, Sion Matunga, Dharavi,and Wadala .
    Along with the hugely successful hooch trade, there was another trade that Varadarajan’s profits started to control—prostitution. Although Varda was never directly involved, he was aware that his men were pouring profits into this very vicious trade. As a former assistant commissioner of police observes, ‘He never stopped his men from letting the prostitution trade grow. That is where we would like to believe that he was equally involved.’ It was a very unique system, where eunuchs were given the reins of the flesh trade. And with a society that treated them with disdain, the eunuchs felt indebted to Varda Bhai’s system that put them in a position of power.
    Innocent girls were brought from poverty-stricken areas in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and were left in the care of eunuchs for a few days. The eunuchs would follow a certain initiation system whereby initially they would lure the girls with the money they would earn by selling themselves. If their sweet talk did not work, force would be applied. Houses in Antop Hill and Dharavi became hotspots for this flesh trade and though Varda Bhai was never seen at the forefront of the business, he certainly was a benefactor of the trade.
    Varda’s clout had increased ten-fold, but in the sixties, smuggling was still considered the ‘real innings ’ . The big share of the pie was still in gold smuggling with the business tilted to the side of Muslim dons who had the right contacts in Arabia . One of these was Haji Mastan.

5
    Tamil Alliance
    O ver the years, Haji Mastan’s financial state had gone up remarkably. But the burning ambition to achieve more still remained. So, once when in the course of conversation his collaborator Bakhiya told him that he should first consider becoming Bambai ka Baadshah before venturing towards Gujarat, Mastan was badly stung. To the up and coming smuggler, such a blatant dismissal was a slap in the face. He made up his mind to take over the city but he knew he could not accomplish this alone. He needed the help of powerful musclemen to reach where he wanted to. Varda seemed to be the perfect man for the job. For, while Varda was a don based in central Bombay, he had the clout to get things done all across the city. His men like