The ‘shadow’

Farid Tanasha was never at the forefront of underworld activities, he was more like Chhota Rajan’s shadow, recalls a crime branch officer.

Farid Tanasha was never at the forefront of underworld activities, he was more like Chhota Rajan’s shadow, recalls a crime branch officer.

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The software engineer, who graduated from a local institute, grew up in Govandi, a lower-middle class suburb of Mumbai. He started working in Mazgaon Dock about 15 years ago, said a police officer. “He got into union activities and complaints against him started coming in,” the officer said.

It was after a tiff with a local goon that he came in contact with gangster Bada Rajan, who sorted out the matter for Farid.

“He was studious and very intelligent and so he rose up in the ranks very fast,” an underworld watcher said.

The murder of Nepalese MP and an alleged Dawood Ibrahim associate Mirza Dilshad Beg in June 1998 was credited to his excellent planning.