Gang wars are common inside jails in Maharashtra

Gang wars are common inside jails in Maharashtra, especially Mumbai's high security Arthur Road Jail, where dreaded members of rival underworld groups are lodged. Chhota Rajan and Dawood Ibrahim's sidekicks, gangsters such as Arun Gawli and Santosh Shetty as well as terrorists and hardened criminals comprise a chunk of prisoners. Hostilities and struggle for power within the jail are not new, as gangsters frequently assault rivals and recruit other inmates to beef up their own gangs - even in custody. The most notorious of such prison wars was at the Nashik Central Jail in September 2002, when O.P. Singh, a former trusted aide of Rajan, was murdered by the henchmen of another Rajan aide, D.K. Rao. Singh, a former quality control officer at Mumbai's Mazgaon Docks, had joined Rajan's gang after his brother was murdered by the Ashwin Naik gang. He emerged as one of Rajan's key advisers but later fell out with him. In another jail violence incident - this one inside the Arthur Road prison - don Abu Salem faced an attack by gangster Mustafa Dossa alias Mustafa Majnu in July 2010. It was preceded by days of conflicts between the two. The assault took place during breakfast in the jail canteen. Dossa, armed with a spoon which he had managed to sharpen, attacked Salem on his face and neck. The don was rushed to hospital and later shifted to another prison. Both Salem and Dossa face charges in the same case - the 1993 blasts in Mumbai. Mehendi Hasan, another Salem aide and undertrial in the Pradeep Jain murder case, was attacked in the Arthur Road Jail by two undertrials and sustained injuries on his hands and chin. Not just gangsters and dons, even smalltime local criminals lodged in prison fight for supremacy. Mumbai gangsters John D'Souza and Azgar Ali Mehndi were killed in the Arthur Road Jail. D'souza was attacked in December 2006 with razors near barrack 4 and succumbed to his injuries. Less than a month later, four members of D'Souza's gang who were lodged inside the jail bumped off Mehndi in a similar way. More recently, murder accused Akram Khan succumbed to his injuries after an inmate of Arthur Road Jail, Kashinath Jadhav, thrashed him mercilessly over a small argument inside the prison

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