BANGALORE: Remember your school days, when you were more popular by that pet name that your friends gave you than the one your parents carefully put on your birth certificate? It’s those pseudonyms that really characterised you, made you unique, apart from the nicknames that your family lovingly tagged on to you -- puttu, kittu, ammi, chummi, there are examples galore.
It’s all for fun.
But in the dark corners of the great underworld, it is these a.k.a’es, these aliases that rule and draw fear and respect.
Everyone from the don, to the thugs and rowdies and even the petty thieves have a special name that makes them (in)famous and there are probably only a handful who know their real names.
Who hasn’t heard of Chota Rajan, the bootlegger of Mumbai? But how many know that his real name is Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje? He used to work for Bada Rajan, or Rajan Nair, till he took over the gang’s leadership.
Another don controlling India’s mafia is known as the Leader of D Company. We are talking about Dawood Ebrahim alias Sheikh Dawood Hassan, whose real name is Sheikh Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. The former gangster of Karnataka, Muttappa Rai, is more commonly known as MR.
Rajesh Kumar, who controls the Bangalore and the Mangalore mafia from Dubai is known as Bannanje Raja. Raviprakash Sullia Pujari, a most-wanted criminal in Mumbai and Bangalore, is known as Ravi Poojary (ironical).
Hatchand Bhaonani Gurumukh Charl e s Sobhraj, a psychopath and a serial killer of Indian and Vietnamese origin preyed on Western tourists in Southeast Asia during the 1970s. He has been nicknamed ‘the Serpent’ and ‘the Bikini killer’ and is commonly known as Charl e s Shobhraj.
Namma names Closer home, the nicknames of rowdies and NOB criminals in the Bangalore underworld are very interesting. Let’s look at the name of yesteryear’s don Kotwala Ramachandra. Kottu means dinner with nonveg items as he always ate non-vegetarian and was nicknamed Kottuwala.
When he became a don, he was renamed as Kotwala, which means gang leader.
Kumar, who runs a kerosene oil buisiness is known as Oil Kumar. He earlier ran a shoe shop and was also called Boot House Kumara.
Jairaj, who has also ruled the city’s underworld was famous as Robbery Jairaj for his involvement in robbery cases. Rajendra who was killed a few years ago was called Bekkina Kannu as he had cat-like eyes. He was also called Student Rajendra for he was studying in a college while being involved in the underworld. Station Shekhar got this unique name since he used to stay at railway stations.
Name nicked Interestingly, many criminals have share the same proper name, which makes it difficult for the police or public to identify them without their nicknames.
For example, there are many Manjunathas in Bangalore Police’s records.
But the Manjunaths can only be identified with Motu Beedi Manja, Kalla Manja, Tuth Manja, Blade Manja, Kathri Manja, Razor Manja, Deck Manja, Don Manja, Stone Manja, Koli Manja and so on.
The pseudonyms came after their habits or hobbies like smoking discarded pieces of beedi, stealing whatever he finds, using scissors to pick pockets, eating chicken, using blades, razors etc.
Some of the MO criminals are called Idli (Anil Kumar who likes eating idli), Bhootha Seena (Sreenivasa who believes in evil spirits), Pambu (Kumar who acts like snake), Phenyl (Sethu who used to sell phenyl), Bikla (Raja who stammers while speaking).
For the record Some other names are Madesh alias Loos Mada, Vijaykumar alias Kawala, Lokesh alias Malama (he applies cream on his body), Gidi Gidi Krishna (Krishna who walks fast), Pachche-Kari Shekhar (likes meat), Nayiweri Venkatesh (hates dogs), Koti Rama (looks like a monkey), Korangu Krishna (looks like a monkey), Meter Shekhar (runs finances), Litre Raja (drinks wine), Kajji Venkatesh (has skin problems), Cycle Ravi (owns a cycle shop), Boxer Manja (he is a local boxer), Turi Seena (scratches himself a lot), Asif chief (the leader of his gang), Dellblack Asif (he is black), Motte Kanna Nandeesha (his eyes resemble eggs), Gadda Rajendra (has a beard), Rohith alias Onte (looks like a camel), Meese Rama (has a long moustache), Sundara alias Kutti Puli (looks like a tiger cub).
The list of nicknames of thugs in Bangalore runs on. And no matter what fate decrees for them, these names will remain in the records forever.