Abdul Latif (24 October 1951 – 29 November 1997) was an underworld figure and terrorist from the

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

state of India and an associate of

Dawood Ibrahim Dawood Ibrahim (; born 26 December 1955) is an Indian mafia gangster, drug kingpin, and wanted terrorist from Dongri, Mumbai. He reportedly heads the Indian organised crime syndicate D-Company, which he founded in Mumbai in the 1970s. Ibrahim i ...

. He was based in

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

and was politically well connected. He used to wait on tables in gambling dens where he started serving liquor as a teenager. He became a bootlegger and eventually monopolised the illegal liquor business in Gujarat. Latif was wanted for over 100 cases of murder, contract killing, extortion, rioting, kidnappings, smuggling, bootlegging and was also wanted in the

1993 Mumbai blasts The 1993 Bombay bombings were a series of 12 terrorist bombings that took place in Bombay, Maharashtra, on 12 March 1993. The single-day attacks resulted in 257 fatalities and 1,400 injuries. The attacks were coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim, l ...

case. There were 243 cases against his gang including 64 murders and 14 kidnappings. The incident that highlighted Latif was the "Odhav Shootout". Latif wanted rival bootlegger Hansraj Trivedi to buy liquor from his gang. As Trivedi refused to be cowed down, Latif led two attacks on the gymkhana. In the second attack on 3 August 1992, automatic weapons, including sten guns and revolvers, were used. The court relied on confessional statements made by some of the accused under section 15 of the Terrorist and Anti Disruptive Activities Act. Special public prosecutor SV Raju appeared for the state. The court convicted nine persons and sentenced eight with life imprisonment and fine, while one Jehangir Patel, who provided arms to the Latif Gang, was given a sentence of seven years. Main accused Liyakat Hussein alias master Khudabax Shaikh, was given lifer with a condition that it shall not be less than 20 years. He was further convicted under several other sections. He was the main culprit in supplying

RDX RDX (abbreviation of "Research Department eXplosive") or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (O2N2CH2)3. It is a white solid without smell or taste, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified as a n ...

used in the

. He was arrested in 1995 in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and housed at the Sabarmati jail pending trial. In November 1997, Latif was shot dead in a

police encounter A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...

in Ahmedabad. In 2014, one of Latif's sons contested the assembly election with

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; translation: ''Socialist Party'', founded 4 October 1992) is a Socialism, socialist political party in India, headquartered in New Delhi but mainly based in Uttar Pradesh, with significant presence in other states as w ...

against Shanker Singh Vaghela, the former Chief Minister. Latif's other son had contested against Vaghela in 2009. The 2017

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

film '' Raees'' is said to be based on Latif's life. In April 2016, Latif's son filed a lawsuit for

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

against the makers of the film, saying the film misrepresented his father. Shaikh's lawyer said that the 97 cases lodged against Latif were for bootlegging and other serious offences under the

Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, commonly known as TADA, was an Indian anti-terrorism law which was in force between 1985 and 1995 (modified in 1987) under the background of the Punjab insurgency and was applied to whole of ...

, but he did not run a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

or use women for delivery in his bootlegging operations, as depicted in the film. The film was declared to be a work of fiction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Latif, Abdul 1951 births 1993 Bombay bombings 1997 deaths D-Company Crime in Gujarat Indian gangsters Indian smugglers 20th-century Indian Muslims Gujarati people People shot dead by law enforcement officers in India People from Ahmedabad Bootleggers