Last week when a shootout took place outside the house of Iqbal Kaskar, brother of India’s most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, and Kaskar’s driver-cum-bodyguard was killed, the spotlight returned on the bit players who occupy the lower rungs of any gangster outfit and who do most of the petty jobs based on which the bigger gangsters can do the more dreaded tasks (read, shooting).

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Such small-time gangsters, since they are unknown, easily mingle around in a crowd and gather accurate information about their subjects. These informers are scattered around the city but can be found most often visiting city civil courts and prisons, where they double up as lunch-box providers or accompany family members who visit the high-profile criminals and thus help them get the information they are seeking.

Different gangsters have different ways of spending their time when they visit courts or are out of prison, often a risk for gangsters. It is these small-timers who ensure the topnotch gangsters’ security and safety from rival gangsters without curtailing their freedom.

For instance, Kaskar’s entire family used to visit him in court when he was being tried in a land-grab case under the provisions of MCOCA. Outside a closed courtroom on the fifth floor, he and his entire family would sit down on the ground to enjoy their lunchtogether. The closed courtroom soon acquired the nickname of “Tiffin Box Court”.

His aides kept a close watch on each and every person passing by, often blocking off the fifth floor for the public. Of course, this was done by Kaskar’s cronies (gangsters never trust the police for their protection).

Whenever gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, who is behind bars in a murder case, visits the court in his trademark Gandhi cap, he holds a darbar. His followers, who call him “Daddy”, can be seen loitering in the court premises much before the court begins, sanitising the area. After the hearing is over, Gawli always takes the last police van back to prison. This gives him extra time, during which he meets most of his followers and family members, including his wife and daughter.

At the Taloja prison, Gawli is the only prisoner among the 800-odd inmates to get home food. The food delivery guy, a local person from Navi Mumbai, brings one huge tiffin box and several newspapers. Gawli can’t read, but his cronies read out the news while the food is shared among the inmates.

Though it is mandatory for the jail guards to escort the accused back to the prison once the case hearing is over, the prison officials often don’t do it if compensated either by the accused or by his family members.

But such leniency is never for all: those charged in terrorism cases never get any benefits and are rushed back to the court lock-up or to prison under heavy guard.