After years of obscurity, gangster Fazal-ur-Rehman has finally got himself a brand name in Mumbai’s underworld, thanks to Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and the infamous tapes.Reports about Rehman’s alleged extortion threats on behalf of Shetty have sent his stock soaring in gangland, according to a senior crime branch officer.Crime branch sleuths have now realised that Fazlu and Lakdawala — currently holed up in Malaysia — could ride the wave of publicity to corner the lion’s share of the extortion racket in Bollywood.But Fazlu has always been a small-time hood, with no more than two men each in Dubai and Mumbai, and is unlikely to be acting alone, according to police.“Fazlu is not even a pawn in the underworld. He can’t even buy an imported pistol which is why many call him the ‘Katta’ (a country-made weapon) don,” remarked encounter specialist Sub-inspector Daya Nayak. “He generally made a demand of Rs 25 lakh and ended up with Rs 25,000.”“The mastermind could be no other than undertrials Subash Singh Thakur and his right-hand man Shamkishore Garigapatti Sharma,” said Anti Extortion Cell chief Pradeep Sharma.The theory is that Garigapatti, on Thakur’s orders, promoted the Fazlu-Lakdawala duo to run their extortion rackets from the city. The modus operandi is simple: Fazlu and Lakdawala threaten the targets from overseas, while a point man in the city collects the money. The booty is later distributed by duo.Fazlu has come a long way since he started out as a small-time goon in his village Mir near Darbhanga in Bihar. He was associated with a local gangster and was assigned petty jobs collecting kidnap ransoms. Later, Fazlu moved to Mumbai and began working with Irfan Goga, Abu Salem and Vikram Vahi. After Vahi’s murder in Nepal, Fazlu escaped to Dubai, fearing that the Mumbai police were closing in on him. During his stint in Dubai, Fazlu established links with the Dawood Ibrahim gang before trying to form his own gang. He fled to Malyasia after the Dubai government clampdown on gangsters following the murder of Sharad Shetty on January 19 this year.
