Black friday
About the book
On the afternoon of 12 March 1993, a series of explosions cut a swathe of terror and destruction through Bombay. The toll: 257 killed or missing, 713 injured, and a city in a shambles.
In Black Friday, S. Hussain Zaidi takes us into the heart of the conspiracy which spanned several countries, and the massive investigation that ensued. A product of four years of meticulous research, the book gives chilling insights into the criminal mind, through interviews with close associates of Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, among others. The characters we meet are compelling: the terrorists, the corrupt law enforcement agents who abetted the plot, the investigators who would stop at nothing, and, above all, the people of Bombay of whose resilient spirit this book is a celebration.
Byculla To Bangkok
About the book
The underworld has new faces, working for and against Dawood Ibrahim, the shadowy, manipulative figure who pulls its strings. Dawood’s own deputy-turned-arch rival Chhota Rajan, thug-turned-politician Arun Gawli, Amar (Raavan) Naik and his engineer brother Ashwin Naik, and a host of other characters, big and small, walk the pages of this compelling history of the Maharashtrian mobsters who were once dubbed ‘amchi muley'(our boys) by former Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. Also included are fascinating stories of the famous — and infamous — policemen and ‘encounter specialists’ who took on the gangs with great success and not many scruples.
Meticulously researched and thrillingly told by the acclaimed authority on the underworld, this brand new paperback edition of Byculla to Bangkok captures the humble beginnings of organized crime mafias that held Mumbai to ransom through the last decades of the twentieth century.
Dial D for Don
About the book
March 1993. Mumbai was rocked by a series of bomb blasts. Unknown to most, Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind behind the terror attack, had made several calls to the CBI. The don was desperate to prove his ‘innocence’ by giving himself up, but with conditions.
October 1999. The world’s very first case of cricket match-fixing led to the banning of six top Indian cricketers, including the then team captain. It was only in 2013, after the then commissioner of police revived the case, that a charge sheet was filed in a court of law.
January 2002. Aftab Ansari-a notorious Dubai-based don responsible for kidnapping a shoe baron in 2001 with the help of Jihadi groups in Pakistan-was arrested just as he was about to escape Dubai on a forged passport to Pakistan.
All these cases of life-threatening moments and unbelievable relief, involved the sharp investigative skills of an Indian Police Service officer then serving in the CBI. In his thirty-seven years of service, Neeraj Kumar neutralized several terror modules and decimated insidious organized crime syndicates spanning continents, working closely with Interpol, FBI, Scotland Yard and several national and international agencies. Much decorated and feted, he hung up his boots in 2013, after his last calling as Delhi’s police commissioner. He has now decided that the inside details of what have been some of the most fascinating crime stories of our times must not go unheard and untold.
The book covers several high-profile cases cracked by him in recent years, including the arrest and deportation of Aftab Ansari, the main accused in the shooting at the American Center in Kolkata, the nabbing of Jagtar Singh Tara, the man behind Punjab CM Beant Singh’s assassination, and the arrest of Romesh Sharma, a Dawood henchman masquerading as a politician based in Delhi.
Mafia Queens Of Mumbai
About
Mafia Queens Of Mumbai
Stories of women from the ganglands
Mafia Queens of Mumbai: Stories of women from the ganglands is an Indian 2011 non-fiction crime novel written by Hussain Zaidi with original research by reporter Jane Borges. It tells 13 true stories of women who were involved in criminal activities in Mumbai.
The Mumbai underworld, or the Mumbai Mafia is as much a part of the city as Bollywood is, and as much a stuff of legends. The well known stories from this murky world are all male-centric. Haji Mastan, Dawood Ibrahim, Varadarajan Mudaliar, and Karim Lala, to name a few.
But, there were women who ruled the roost there too, women who remained in the background and pulled the strings, women who acted as mentors and advisers to the famous dons, women who were wives of the dons and then took over when their husbands were killed, women who assumed leadership to try and bring down rival leaders who had harmed their family.
Their stories are varied and just as intriguing, and hitherto untold. But these stories are well known in the ganglands of Mumbai. This book now brings together a set of stories about interesting and powerful female leaders of the Mumbai underworld.
There is the story of Gangubhai, a girl who ran away from a small village and ended up in Mumbai streets and eventually became the powerful matriarch of Kamathipura, Mumbai’s red light area.
Ashraf, who learnt of her husband’s underworld connection only after he was killed, transformed herself into the powerful Sapna Didi, to try and take down her husband’s killer.
Mrs. Paul and Rubina Sayyed, associates of Chota Shakeel, Tarannum Khan, a bar dancer who became rich through cricket betting, and more such stories.
But, the most intriguing story is probably about the very powerful Jenabhai, who was closely associated with many underworld dons like Haji Mastan, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Dawood Ibrahim etc, and advised them on various matters and helped in shaping important events in the underworld.
The Bad Boys Of Bokaro Jail
About the Book
What happens when a business executive is thrown into a jail in small town Jharkhand? He ends up with an education of a lifetime…
When Chetan Mahajan is wrongfully sent to Bokaro jail, he encounters a world completely different from his corporate life in Delhi. From picking the best prison ward, befriending the people who can get him mobile phone access and upgraded food, and training for his upcoming marathon in the tiny prison yard, Chetan soon learns to work the prison system. In the process he makes unlikely friends, and discovers what India’s underbelly really looks like.
A true story, The Bad Boys of Bokaro Jail, is thought provoking, amusing and touching. It will show you the Indian prison as you have never seen it before.
The Class of 83
About the book
At a time when Mumbai was plagued by underworld gangsters like Dawood Ibrahim, Iqbal Kaskar and Chhota Rajan, the batch of 1983 from the Police Training School (PTC) in Nashik-trained by the legendary Arvind Inamdar-produced a group of prominent encounter specialists who have been credited with bringing back the rule of law in the city.
Famed even within this batch, trigger-happy senior police inspector Pradeep Sharma understood that to save the city from the clutches of the underworld, he would need to dilute rival gangs. The Class of 83 delves deep into the most famous (or infamous) encounters conducted by Sharma and his batch mates. Pradeep Sharma was arrested by the same department he had served for two-and-a-half decades. He faced the ignominy of jail, clubbed in the same cell as the criminals he had arrested. However, he fought for his honour, was acquitted and reinstated into service.
In The Class of 83, S. Hussain Zaidi presents a one-of-a-kind story of a policeman’s triumphs, struggles and redemption.
The Kiss of life
About the Book
How do you deal with the most difficult moments in your life?
Every experience that we go through changes us and helps us grow. As we learn to laugh and cry, win and lose, share and care, the meaning of life and true happiness unfolds before us. Known for his bold forays into Bollywood, Emraan Hashmi walks us through his memories that have shaped him-from a confused teenager who dabbled in a variety of things to finding his calling to the suave, smart and unorthodox actor he has become today. At the heart of his story lies the most important and transformative experience of his life-the period when his son, Ayyan, was battling with cancer. It reveals the man behind the limitless charm of Emraan Hashmi and how he dealt with his son’s illness. Honest, personal, bold and heart-warming, The Kiss of Life is about an actor and a father’s trials and triumphs.
The Stardust affair
Avinash Pawar, a young, intrepid reporter, works at the Mumbai Sun, alongside his mentor, Hamza Syed, a seasoned journalist who specializes in unearthing secrets about the region underworld. At Hamza’s request, Avinash agrees to ghostwrite the memoir of fading Bollywood actress Parineeti Deb Ahuja — but little does he realize how drawn he will be to the charm Parineeti exudes both on- and off-screen.
Before he knows it, Avinash has a front-row seat to the glamorous world of Bollywood and discovers more about Parineeti’s complicated relationship with her secretive industrialist husband. As he confronts his own feelings, he finds himself sucked into an intricate web of danger and deceit. What starts out as a straightforward writing assignment quickly turns into a high-stakes game where Avinash is playing for his life. Will he able to escape from unscathed from this murky world of drugs, crime and deception?