Nothing is out of reach of the gangsters. If firing on court premises was earlier considered the final act of temerity, the ganglords recently outdid themselves and carried out a shooting right in front of the city police headquarters and got away with it. If attacking a policeman was earlier out of bounds, in the past 10 months, gangsters have not only shot at them in several incidents but also resorted to grenades.

In one such incident in April, Janardhan Pashi (also known as ``Grenade Pashi''), an aide of one of Mumbai's kingpins, Chhota Rajan, when surrounded by a police team, threw a hand grenade at them, killing three including two officers. Similarly, Chhota Shakeel'stop lieutenant, Feroz Konkani, killed a carbine-wielding constable during his escape from the JJ Hospital in May.Though the fear they have unleashed would make it seem otherwise, it is only a handful of mobsters who actually control the reins in Mumbai. The city has four main gangs and among them, these are increasingly determining who lives and who dies here.

The ganglords of all four -- Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan, Arun Gawli and Amar Naik (now dead) -- had started humbly before rising to become dons. Dawood Ibrahim, the most notorious of the lot, was one among a head constable's 10 children. His lieutenants include Abu Salem, a tailor and driver who encashed on Dawood's already established terror in the city to make his fortune. Another of Dawood's aides, Chhota Shakeel, was a black-marketeer who too capitalised on ``Bade bhai ki hukumat'' in Mumbai. Since Dawood's reported sabbatical from India, Salem and Shakeel have donned the mantle of his gang.

Dawood's former aide-de-camp, Rajendra Nikhaljealias Chhota Rajan, is another force to reckon with. An erstwhile black-marketeer who started his career in Chembur cinema in the north-eastern suburbs of Mumbai, Rajan hit big time after he came in contact with Dawood in the early '80s. However, when Dawood realised that Rajan had grown too big for his boots, he distanced himself from the latter in 1994. But Rajan now claims he himself parted ways with Dawood as the latter was communal.

Apart from the Dawood clan and its offshoots, there are two other major players in Mumbai's mafia market. They are Arun Gawli and Amar Naik, local men who were once acclaimed by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray as Amchi muley (our boys). The Sena had even touted Gawli and Naik as the Hindus' answer to Dawood.

A mill worker from Lal Baug area, Gawli had garnered local support because of his defiance of Dawood. However, his honeymoon with the Sena did not last long, and after the party came to power in 1994, Gawli felt his wings being clipped. Subsequently, Gawli formed theAkhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS) on the lines of the Sena and declared he would fight the latter on its own ground.

Naik, on the other hand, began as a vegetable vendor from Dadar and till his death in an encounter in 1996, was considered one of the city's most influential gangsters. He is believed to have had contacts with Cabinet ministers in the Sena-BJP Government, and even his death is said to have been cleared by another lobby of ministers which saw him as a threat. Since Naik's death, his UK-returned brother and an engineering graduate, Ashwin, has taken over the gang.

Currently, it is the foot soldiers of Rajan, Shakeel-Salem, Gawli and Naik who are on a blood-letting spree in the city. According to a Crime Branch officer, the gangs are fighting over extortion money which could roughly amount to a mind-boggling figure of over Rs 200-Rs 300 crore a year.

``The underworld is like a stock exchange. With each hit or casualty, the gang's stock rises or plummets, respectively,'' says a Deputy Commissionerof Police. And since the gang with the most dreaded reputation is likely to grab the major share of the market, each is trying to outdo the other.

So far this year, Shakeel has emerged as a major contender for the top slot, with over 15 killings and 130 extortion threats to his ``credit''. Following closely is Rajan, with reportedly 12 killings and 75 threats. Gawli, whose men have been systematically targeted by the police, is believed to have still managed to pull off eight killings and over 102 extortion demands. The Naik gang trails, having only three killings and eight extortion threats to its name.

Among the dons, Gawli is the only one who lives in India. The rest are all holed up in safe hideouts abroad. While Shakeel and Salem are believed to be hiding in Karachi and Islamabad, Naik has made bases in London and Toronto and Rajan is said to be living on a yacht near Kuala Lumpur.

Armed with mobile phones and SIM cards, these ganglords are hardly encumbered by distance. However, for the police andincreasingly, the public, it means a war which won't have a very early end.

Though earlier the violence was largely inter-gang, facts now show otherwise. Among the 88 people killed this year, over 57 did not have any criminal past or underworld links. The police put the figure at 36, but this does not include the bystanders who unwittingly got in the way.

A list of this year's victims include Shiv Sena leaders (like Kedari Redekar), politicians (Ramdas Ambaokar), exporters (Vinod Agarwal), travel agents (Shaikh Shabbir), Matka baron (Vasantlal Shah), videographer (Lalit Shah), electrical contractor (Eknath Khanvilkar), hotel stewards (Keith Rodrigues), a college student (Bhushan Patil), not to mention several builders and hoteliers who got killed because they refused to pay extortion money. As is clear, anyone is a target in Mumbai these days, anyone who is seen to have a little cash to spare.