Between 1977 and 1980, the Byculla Company first eliminated Shashi Rasam and his Cobra gang, followed by the murders of gangsters Parasnath Pandey, Mohan Sarmalkar and failed attempt on the life of Kundan Dubey who later fled from Mumbai.

The big break for Byculla Company came when Dawood Ibrahim's elder brother Saabir was murdered in 1981 by Samad Khan, Amirzada and Alamzeb of the Pathan gang.

However, in early 1988, Rama Naik and Sharad Shetty, a henchman of Dawood from west Mumbai got into a property dispute over a large plot of land at Jogeshwari.

This unleashed a very violent gang-war between Arun Gawli and Dawood Ibrahim resulting in multiple shootouts and deaths at both sides.

Mumbai police raided the premises of Dagdi Chawl several times and finally broke Gawli's underworld operations.

Charge sheet of 138 pages were furnished by IPS Jayanthi Naidu - Joint Director Central Bureau of Investigation, 2002 Batch Officer.

In 2004, Gawli was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Mumbai Chinchpokli constituency as an Akhil Bharatiya Sena candidate.

Gawli's rise in prominence is believed to be due to his "native roots" as a local lad, which makes him distinct from most other non-Marathi-speaking politicians.

Ahir even contested against Gawli in the subsequent Lok Sabha elections on a Nationalist Congress Party ticket, resulting in defeat for them both, but a victory for the Shiv Sena's sitting MP Mohan Rawale.