Mumbai gangster killed | They're back

Mumbai: The infamous gang wars of the 90s seems to be making a violent comeback on Mumbai streets.

Two days after the broad daylight shootout at the Kala Ghoda court, gangster Rajesh Naik was killed in a police encounter early on Thursday morning in Dombivli near Mumbai.

Naik belonged to city’s Santosh Shetty gang.

According to the police, Naik arrived on a bike with an accomplice at Dombivli at around 0200 hrs (IST) and was shot dead after he opened fire after being asked to surrender.

The Thane police are searching for the accomplice who managed to escape. Naik had a number of murder cases registered against him at various police stations.

“Naik has four cases registered against him, three in Dombivli and one in Lonavla,” said Senior Police Inspector, Thane Property Cell, Praful Joshi.

Statistics show that over the last few years Mumbai's biggest gangs have been put out of business and it is smaller splinter groups that are filling the vacuum.

"Yes there has been a significant decrease in the activities of the big gangs and this increase in number of extortion cases is because small groups of younger boys sometimes just pick up the phone to threaten people. We have been very proactive and have all of these people on our radars," says Borwankar.

Many of these smaller gangs have established their presence through dramatic incidents like the shootout at Mahesh Bhatt's office and helped local gangsters like Ravi Pujari establish their presence.

But apart from Ravi Pujari's gang there are others as well including Guru Satam, Hemant Pujari, Fazlur Rehman and Santosh Shetty.