Garden Reach, where the calm in some pockets has been ripped by the resurgence of gang wars as local dons fight for turf in the port area. A Telegraph picture

Sanawar, alias Kaalu, returned from a “foreign assignment” a few months ago to find someone else lording over Mayurbhanj Road. Kana Sanjay, he was told, had wrested his “territory” while he was away in Hong Kong. His pride injured, Sanawar and his men attacked the rival gang a fortnight ago in a bid to regain control. As bombs were hurled and gunshots fired, residents of Mayurbhanj Road knew it was only the beginning.

Khasichor Raju and associate Kasaiya Raju are known never to shy away from a fight. About 10 days ago, the duo and their men clashed with the Shaukat Ali gang over possession of a shop in Mominpore. As on Mayurbhanj Road, bombs were hurled and daggers drawn in a scene reminiscent of a Bollywood gangster film. Khasichor was injured and admitted to a nearby nursing home.

Guns are booming again in the city’s seamy underbelly after a period of calm, when several wannabe dons had shifted base to Mumbai and Hong Kong in search of more lucrative employment.

Most of them have returned or are contemplating returning because the going was tough elsewhere. Sanawar worked in a Hong Kong restaurant and probably would have been arrested there for not possessing valid documents, had he not fled seven months ago. Likewise, the two Rajus had started a garment business in Mumbai and Delhi, only to realise that home is where the money is.

“Khasichor and Kasaiya want to resettle in Calcutta and regain control of the area they once ruled. That area is now controlled by another gang, resulting in a turf war,” said an officer of Ekbalpore police station.

The gang wars are still child’s play compared to the games the underworld baddies play in Mumbai, and the protagonists are almost caricatures of the real dons who call the shots from their pads abroad, but the police insist that the intensity of the rivalries has increased.

The port area had gone quiet after the murder of ganglord Uday Singh, shot dead by members of the Shankar Paike gang in 1997 after a duel over Calcutta Port Trust contracts. Singh, who had started off as an extortionist and then turned businessman, was aiming to contest elections as an Independent candidate when bullets cut his ambition and life short.

“The lull has ended. The goons are back and clashes have become frequent in the port area,” the police officer said.

Kana Sanjay and Sanawar, the duo at the heart of the gang war resurgence on Mayurbhanj Road, have long been enemies. When Sanawar was away, Sanjay toted up an enviable crime record. There are cases of attempt to murder, rioting and snatching against his name at Ekbalpore police station.

The area of conflict between Sanjay and Sanawar is the same one that led to Uday’s murder nearly a decade ago. It is just that the stakes are higher now. “The rivalry between them was previously over who would bag the contracts to load and unload ship cargo. It is now over scrap iron tenders, where the margin of profit can be as high as 50 per cent,” the officer said.

The realty boom, too, has helped some of the goons increase their earnings. Apart from eyeing port contracts, Sanjay supplies raw materials to realtors. “His underworld activities are managed by his two associates, Dilip and Chand,” a source said.

Ekbalpore police recently arrested Sanawar and his aides Nakkata Shakeel, Paleed Munna and Anwarul Haque, alias Lal. But the bigger challenge for the police is to check the growth of his “business”.