Maya Dolas

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Maya Dolas (Marathi: माया डोळस) (October 15, 1966 – November 16, 1991), born Mahindra Dolas, was an Indian underworld gangster who used to work for the D-Company don, Dawood Ibrahim. He was killed in an encounter with the then Additional Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Aftab Ahmed Khan, at the age of 25.^[1]

Maya Dolas' story was made into a 2007 movie titled Shootout at Lokhandwala, with Vivek Oberoi playing the role of Maya, and Amrita Singh acting as his mother Ratnaprabha Dolas.^[2]

[edit] Biography

Maya Dolas was born to Vithobha and Ratnaprabha Dolas. He was one of their six children. Dolas joined the Dawood Ibrahim gang in 1980s and rose quickly through the ranks in the outfit. He ran several successful extortion rackets.

Dolas was also close to the Indian National Congress criminal - politician Ashok Joshi's gang at Kanjur village, which was also affiliated with the Dawood Ibrahim's gang, D-Company. By 1989 however, he had fallen out from the Ashok Joshi gang, and on 17 September 1989, Maya led a retaliation against the Joshi gang, in which five people were killed.^[3]

It seems that at some point Maya Dolas had become too successful, and he along with some others, primarily Hindu gangsters, fell out with Dawood Ibrahim subsequently.

[edit] Shootout at Lokhandwala

The Lokhandwala Complex is an upper end middle-class housing area in Andheri, Mumbai, where Shiv Sena criminal-politician Gopal Rajwani had purchased a flat for mega-mobster Dawood Ibrahim.^[4] In 1991, Dawood henchmen Maya Dolas and Dilip Buwa, along with four others, were in this apartment when they were surrounded by the Bombay Police led by Aftab Ahmed Khan; it was later alleged that Khan had been tipped off by Dawood who wanted the police to kill them.^[5]

The ensuing four hour shootout, much of it publicised live on news channels, made Maya Dolas famous, and the police officer Khan a household name.

After the encounter, it was alleged that the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) which had participated in the encounter had made off with Rs. 70 lakh (Rs. 7 million) cash which was with Maya Dolas. A number of inquiries conducted by the Bombay police failed to turn up any concrete evidence.

Maya Dolas was just reckless and foul mouthed. Dilip Buwa was cold blooded. Unlike Dolas, nothing could divert Buwa’s attention when his fingers were on the trigger. He was a mentor to Chhota Rajan.^[6]

– Aftab Ahmed Khan, Officer in-charge of the Anti-Terrorist Squad at the time of Lokhandwala Shootout

Maya's mother Ratnaprabha had moved court to ban the movie Shootout at Lokhandwala stating that the movie presents her son falsely. For example, the movie shows that Maya had killed his abusive father at age nine, whereas his father outlived Maya and died only in 1997.^[7] She also claimed that he was an alumnus of IIT Bombay.^[8] Taking note of the fact that the movie also portrays Ratnaprabha as encouraging the criminal tendencies in her son, the suit wanted the producer to re-do the film. Chhota Rajan also objected to the film, saying that it "grossly distorts the facts".^[9] In response, A A Khan, the cop who led up front the team which gunned down Maya Dolas, rubbished Rajan's claim, saying that the operation was videographed and it was conducted in full view of the public.

The directors claim that the movie is highly fictionalised, although it uses the real names, and the movie opens with an apology to the real characters. A Mumbai sessions court refused to stay the film release based on the case in May 2007.