Mumbai:
The association of builder Vinod Asrani alias Vinod Chembur with fugitive gangster Chhota Rajan dates back to over two decades.
Vinod used to own and operate a telephone booth in Tilak Nagar, Chembur, which is also the stronghold of Rajan.
In the early stages of their association, Rajan used Vinod's phone booth as his communication centre and collection office.
In the absence of cell phones and hands free gadgets, the PCO booth served as a hotline for the gangster's flourishing extortion business. He would make his calls from the booth and also call people to the phone booth to threaten them.
In fact, his punters were also instructed to collect money from Vinod's booth. And extortion money was also deposited at the same booth.
Gradually, as the gang's business began to diversify and flourish, Vinod took to collecting bets and money from bookies and punters on cricket matches, say cops.
All the bets that Rajan's gang would take on cricket matches were routed through Vinod's Chembur phone booth. Soon, he became a point man for all collections for the gang.
After a few years of being a middleman for betting, Vinod soon donned the mantle of a bookie and began playing and setting the odds for the matches.
A police source added, "As he was the point man for the all the betting transactions, he soon picked up the ropes of the trade. He graduated from being a collection agent to being a bookie himself."
A source from Tilak Nagar revealed that Rajan had entrusted Vinod with not just collection of money, and cricket betting but to also take care of the real estate business ventures.
Soon extortion from builders in the form of cash was replaced by accepting shares and percentages in projects for the gang. Thus, Vinod Bookie soon became known as Vinod Builder.
A police officer said that even after Rajan fled from the country, Vinod was in regular touch with him and took care of the gang's business in the area.
However, after the police turned on the heat on bookies and gangsters, Vinod branched out into real estate and became a developer. This gave his business the legitimacy it needed and also had the cops off his back.
During investigation of J Dey's murder case it came to light that Vinod had met Dey, along with another journalist, at Uma bar in Mulund.
It was on June 7, that the two shooters Satish Kalia and Anil Waghmode had made a recce of MiD DAY's office at Peninsula Centre in Parel.
The same evening, Vinod called the two shooters to the same bar and helped them identify Dey. The killers shot Dey on June 11.