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Codes of the underworld: Why do criminals have unusual names?
Criminals take these unusual, unique and flashy names to be seen differently from others, and use these names to maintain dominance in the crime world, says former U.P. DGP.
KANPUR In early 1990s when the streets of Mumbai (then Bombay) were infested with underworld mafias, Salim Tukaram emerged as an ace hitman. He worked for gangster Abu Salem and had many high-profile killings to his name. While there was nothing righteous about what Salim did for a living, his last name Tukaram was actually taken from the name of a 17th century saint Tukaram in Maharashtra. And there lies an interesting story.
As a child, Salim was hit by a car. He suffered a head injury and slipped into unconsciousness. A Shiv Sena leader named Tukaram came to his rescue and carried him to the hospital where he was treated. “On gaining consciousness, Salim got flashes of the face of his Gandhi cap-wearing rescuer -- Tukaram. He began calling out his name loudly and thus, the prefix Tukaram became his identity,” recounts Dinesh Kadam, ACP Nashik who investigated the 1993 blasts and has extensive knowledge of the underworld days.
Like Salim, other gangsters also use unusual and colourful names (or aliases) to stand out of the crowd. And almost in all such cases, there is back story to how the person acquired the name. Contrary to William Shakespeare’s famous quote of “what’s in a name”, the name, much like everything else, is serious business in the underworld. These names are not just an extension of the criminal’s personality but also serve some very specific purposes.
Throwing more light on this, Kadam said, “Unusual name has a special place in the underworld mechanism. Avoiding interception is one. While there may be many Salims in the business, there is just one Tukaram. Also, this allows criminals to speak freely without dropping the real name… The underworld used this way to maintain a certain degree of anonymity about criminals for as long as it could. These names are the references, which often change from one district to the other.”
In fact, India’s most wanted don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar was known as ‘Dawood Muchchad’ for his dense and bushy moustache at one point of time. Similarly, his caporegime Chhota Shakeel was ‘Pauna-Takla’ for his baldness in underworld parlance.
“Whenever a criminal enters this slimy world; he is given a unique name based on some physical trait, his work, his speciality, his habit or other such things. That is why one finds unusual names affixed to their real names,” says Arun Kumar, founding SSP of UP-STF that was formed to get rid of gangsters and mafias in the state in 1998.
Kumar, who also served as the director-general of Railway Protection Force (RPF), added, “Many a time, these names are based on the past professions of the gangster. For instance, Rajesh Decorator, a dreaded hitman of the D-company, used to decorate marriage venues with lights before stepping into the underworld. Likewise, Salim Passport, who worked for U.P. don Babllo Srivastava, used to run a travel agency in Mumbai and provide forged passports to criminals.”
Another such U.P-based gangster Rafiq ‘Jalabhuna’ got the unusual prefix due to his eccentricity. Apparently, he would get hysterical at the slightest provocation. Going in further detail, Kumar explains, “Very often, several of the contemporaries would have the same name. Like Salim Tukaram was active around the time when Salim ‘Haddi’ was also rising to prominence. The prefix ‘Haddi’, which was given to him because he was skinny, would also help others to distinguish between the two Salims. Another such example is that of Chhota Shakeel. Back then, there were two Shakeels in the underworld. So, one was referred to as Shakeel ‘Lambu’ while the other as ‘Chhota’ Shakeel.”
Interestingly, Indian Mujahideen’s convicted bomber Asadullah ‘Haddi’, who was captured in Nepal with Yasin Bhatkal, was not called Haddi (like Salim ‘Haddi’) because he was skinny but because his father Dr Javed Akhtar was an orthopaedic doctor.
There is another such story of hitman Rakesh Pandey, who worked with gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari. Ansari would always refer to Pandey as ‘Hanuman’ as the latter was a glutton. Pandey was teased for having the diet of almost five people.
Dr Ganesh Shankar, a psychoanalyst with GSVM medical college, traces the vestige of this in dearth empathy, which is fundamental to building meaningful social connections, in world of crime. “Why do we give each other nicknames, either in jest to make time full of fun or out of affability,” he asks. “Even if your friend is bald, you cannot refer him as ‘Takla’ or ‘Ganja’ all the time. No matter how close you are with that person, he will be offended. However, no one cares for all this in the criminal world. So, you see all kinds of names, many of them flashy and crude to identify a person,” said Dr Shankar.
Former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, Prakash Singh, puts forth a different take. “Criminals take these unusual, unique and flashy names to be seen differently from others, and use these names to maintain dominance in the crime world,” he said while adding, “I have no qualms in admitting they use it as a brand; they (criminals) have this fetish for being different from general people.”
Here, one can cite the example of Indra Dev Singh, who, according to U.P. Police records, is a top gangster from East UP. However, very few even know him by his real name. He identifies himself as BKD when asking for money or threatening people because of his grandfather’s association with farmer’s body Bharatiya Kisan Dal (BKD).
Bhanu Bhaskar, ADG Prayagraj and an officer with long stints with National Investigation Agency and CBI, said the difference lies in naming a person and his acceptance of that name. “If man is physically crippled and named as ‘langda’, does he need to accept this nomenclature? He can raise his voice against it? But his desire for a power-packed identity forces him to accept this naming,” added Bhaskar.
U.P. Police officials believe this phenomenon began with the Mumbai underworld and has now spread far and wide, particularly in the south where the criminals deliberately add titles such as Rowdy, Boxer, Welding, Auto, Poison.
Minister in U.P. government and former IPS officer Asim Arun cites a brief study which was undertaken during his tenure as commissioner Kanpur on this issue. “When a person is seen as one with ‘bad muzanna’ or bad character, the society starts identifying him/her with a nickname. Like one criminal was called Javed Bukhar because those who would be thrashed by him would often develop a fever,” said the minister.
The trend, which started decades ago, doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Maybe, these colourful names will keep on popping up till the underworld is completely dismantled.
