Troubled shooters: Shortage of trained gunmen hits underworld

Last year, the police arrested a member of the Kumar Pillai gang who barged into the office of a builder with a gun, but was unable to fire the weapon — not due to any technical glitch, but because he wasn’t trained.

Sharpshooters in the underworld have always been in demand. But with the top guns either on the run, in prison, or dead, the recruitment of thugs and petty criminals in the major league has put many gangs in an embarrassing position.

In earlier days, the shooters contributed in making their dons powerful and dreaded. They were trained in the use of of various firearms and knew exactly where to shoot on the body to cause maximum damage.

The shooters were sent to isolated jungles around the city to practise. Arun Gawli had built an indoor firing range inside the Dadgi chawl.

Shooters like Sunil Sawant, Balu Dokre, Subhash Singh Thakur, Maya Dolas, Mahendra Shelar Sanjay Ruggad and others were paid much more than others. Also, most of them were locals and were experts in finding an exit route.

Over the past few years, the shooters have been from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They have either failed to identify their targets or simply missed it by miles. “The migrant shooters panic in an alien land. They are not trained and their weapons are sub-standard. They are also scared of the Mumbai police,” said a former encounter specialist.