Not everyday does a politician stay away from the polling booth on voting day fearing that a cop will bump him off. But if you are a politician named Arun Gawli, then it makes sense to stay as far away from a cop called Salaskar.
Salaskar is single-handedly credited for wiping out the gang of the home-bred don-turned-politician in the late 1990s.
He also destroyed the powerful and frightening hold the drug mafia was beginning to take over Mumbai.
Salaskar was also the man who is credited with unearthing the gutka industry-underworld nexus. It is said that he was sidelined for two years. In late 2007, he was reinstated to the crime branch, where he heads the anti-extortion cell.
Though allegations of killing gangsters in cold blood have been leveled at Salaskar too, he is relatively untouched by controversy as much as his colleagues from the batch of 1983 do.
Photograph: Arun Patil
Also read: 'In a shootout, no one has time for niceties.
You kill or get killed.''
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