Indira Gandhi used to meet gangster Karim Lala, Sanjay Raut claims

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Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday claimed that former prime minister Indira Gandhi used to come to meet yesteryear don Karim Lala in Mumbai. Recalling days of the underworld in Mumbai, Raut, who was earlier a journalist, said gangsters like Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel and Sharad Shetty used to have control over the metropolis and adjoining areas. They used to decide who will be the police commissioner, who will sit in 'Mantralaya' (secretariat), Raut said in an interview to a media group during its award function here.

"When Haji Mastan used to come to 'Mantralaya', the entire 'Mantralaya' would come down to see him. Indira Gandhi used to come to meet Karim Lala in Pydhonie (in south Mumbai)," claimed Raut, whose party formed a coalition government with the NCP and Congress in Maharashtra last year. 

Lala, who operated liquor dens, gambling and extortion rackets in Mumbai from 1960s to 1980s, died in 2002. 

"Those were the days of the underworld. Later, everybody (dons) fled the country. Now there is nothing like that," the Shiv Sena's Rajya Sabha member said.

Asked if had photographed underworld dons, Raut claimed he clicked pictures of many gangsters, including Dawood Ibrahim, who is key accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

The Sena leader also claimed that he had once rebuked Dawood Ibrahim.

"I have seen him, I have met him, I have spoken to him and I have also admonished him," he added.