Home to Arun Gawli, Mumbai's Dagdi Chawl to be Replaced by Skyscrapers. Saga of Underworld Haven Explained

Mumbai’s Dagdi Chawl, which famously hosted former underworld don Arun Gawli, is all set to be redeveloped and replaced by two 40-storied skyscrapers in the next few years.

As per reports, the 386 tenants of Dagdi Chawl will start moving out of the 4000 square meter plot in a phased manner. The 4-storey buildings will be demolished to make way for two 40-storey buildings, one of which will be reoffered to the tenants.

Arun Gawli, who is serving a life term for the murder of a Shiv Sena corporator, performed Navratri Aarti at his stronghold Dagdi Chawl, knowing it would be his last Navratri at the precinct he once ruled.

Why Was Dagdi Chawl Famous?

Dagdi Chawls, surrounded by swanky buildings in the Agripada area of south Mumbai, once provided a safe hideout to Arun Gawli who was at loggerheads with the Dawood Ibrahim and Ashwin Naik gangs.

Before Dagdi Chawl became Gawli’s fortress, it served as residential quarters for mill workers and their families. On one of the top floors of buildings in the chawl, Gawli and his family used to live a luxurious life.

The area, now a century old and spread in more than an acre, became one of the most dubious addresses in Mumbai in the 1980s when Gawli began his tryst with the underworld. With the underworld long gone in Mumbai, the old society will make for the skyscrapers to house the city’s new powerful class.

Currently, there are around 375 tenants in the rooms measuring just 120 square feet each, housing over 1,000 people, with many families having spent three generations in the chawls, from birth to death.

As per the proposal, taken up by little-known Livingstones Infra Private Limited, two identical towers of around 40 floors each will come up. While one of the skyscrapers will go to the existing tenants, another one will be offered to open market sale.

Who is Arun Gawli?

Arun Gawli alias Daddy used Dagdi Chawl as his crime den in the 1980s and ’90s. It was a time when the infamous Don Dawood Ibrahim was at the peak of his crime history.

Gawli became a rival to Dawood Ibrahim when he declined to join his smuggling business. He then used Dagdi Chawl as the headquarters of the BRA (Babu Reshim, Rama Naik and Arun Gawli) gang. Ibrahim even tried to vanquish Gawli, but in vain.

“While Dawood killed Gawli’s brother and Gawli retaliated by carrying out a hit job on Dawood’s brother-in-law Ibrahim Parkar, he would always retreat into the safety of Dagdi Chawl where no one could enter without his permission,” Sunil Deshmukh, former Assistant Commissioner of police, said, according to Hindustan Times.

According to a report in Midday, Lalvitanchi Chawl in Byculla West used to be the centre of the crime world before Dagdi. Lalvitanchi Chawl used to house several gangsters like Chota Rajan. Arun Gawli also used to visit the chawl and that’s where he got the idea of using Dagdi Chawl as his fortress.

Gawli made an entry into politics without much success. But he enjoys considerable support in central Mumbai. Late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray publicly hailed him as a ‘Hindu Don’.

Gawli is currently serving a life sentence at the Central jail in Nagpur in the 2007 murder case of Mumbai Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar.