The gunning down of several businessmen in the last few months has instilled a fear psychosis in the minds of corporate pashas.

Speaking to them, Thackeray said that most of the dangerous gangsters had been shot dead and that there was not much to worry about. He said that small-time criminals had suddenly gone into large-scale extortion and the police found it difficult to trace them in the absence of any past record.

Chief minister Manohar Joshi, who also attended the meeting, said that the main reason for the crime graph shooting northwards is because of general recession engulfing the city. Joshi said the closing down of textile mills and several other factories had resulted in high level of joblessness. Consequently, the jobless people with no underworld connection had got into the extortion business.

Thestate government on its part has taken several steps to stem this menace. "We have sought permission to tap phones and also asked the cellular phone companies to stop the issuance of pre-paid sim cards," Joshi said. These measures have seen the number of threatening calls dwindling by nearly 95 per cent, Joshi said.

The meeting was attended by leading businessmen including Rahul Bajaj, AS Kasliwal, YP Trivedi, Venugopal Dhoot, Uday Kotak, RN Mody, and Ashwin Dani among others.